Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't unprofessional, 'Suddenly' director says

Last week, French director Thomas Bidegain's interview with a French magazine stirred speculations about Jake Gyllenhaal's professional behaviour after he left his project Suddenly. 

However, the filmmaker says he did not suggest anything negative about his professionalism.

In a chat with Variety, the Les Cowboys director said the actual reason the Marvel star and Vanessa Kirby exited the project was over a creative clash instead of unprofessionalism.

"People don't understand how a film is made. We were not shooting, and we were not in pre-production. The tentative date of the shoot was eight weeks away," referring to a claim the walking away of the actors cost the studio $26 million.

"This project came together during the pandemic, so we had only discussed via Zoom. We would talk every week, but we had not met to talk about the film," the 55-year-old added.

He continued, "So I came up with the idea of setting up that week in Iceland to read the script together with Jake and Vanessa."

Noting, "I thought it would be good to meet there since it was where we were thinking of shooting the movie, and it's a beautiful place."

However, Thomas shared the team did not come on the same page despite his efforts. 

"But when we started reading the script in the same room, we realized that we didn't have at all the same vision of what the film was meant to be."

"They wanted more and more changes. It's normal when there are changes to the script before shooting, but this was different. We each had our own idea of what the message of the film was.

Adding, "I tried to smooth things over once, twice — and then I just realized it wasn't going to work out, so it had to stop."