-Jake Gyllenhaal, ladies and gentlemen,
is here right now.
We're talking about -- [ Cheers and applause ]
I want to talk about your new movie.
First of all, thank you for doing our show
when we were stuck at home in the pandemic.
We did -- You did a really funny bit
with Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell,
and you were fantastic in it.
Thank you for doing that. It meant a lot to us.
-Thank you so much for having me.
Are you kidding me?
-You made your film, "The Guilty,"
during that, right?
Or right after that.
-Yeah, it was just right after that --
October 2020.
-How hard is it to make a film during a pandemic?
-It was -- You know, it was like right in that sort of
second wave of us -- everyone going back on lockdown,
and we were shooting in Los Angeles.
When I had -- I developed the movie
as an idea that I really loved
and I sent it to Antoine Fuqua, who directed it.
We made this movie, "Southpaw," together.
-Yeah.
-And I sent it to him and I said,
"We can shoot this movie in 48 hours."
You know?
It takes place pretty much in one place.
One character, you follow the whole thing.
And then, when I sent it to him, really, I said,
"Five days, five days.
Shoot it in five days."
'Cause no one knew at that point how --
You know, the shorter we shoot,
the safer it would be, you know?
-Of course.
-And we ended up shooting the movie in 11 days.
-Wow!
-Yeah.
-That's unbelievably short amount of time to shoot a movie.
-But it was safe, you know? It was as safe as it could be.
So, it was difficult in certain ways.
I mean, like the Friday before the Monday
we were supposed to start shooting,
someone near Antoine tested positive for COVID,
and he had to go into quarantine.
And we only had an 11-day shoot,
so it means 12 days he had to be away,
which meant, because it was so short --
We had all these great actors. We have Ethan Hawke in it.
We have Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough --
all these incredible actors that meant they were doing a favor.
We'd have to recast. It was going fall apart.
And we basically found this van with monitors in it.
And we hardwired the van to the stage,
and Antoine directed the entire movie
from a van from a block away from the stage where we shot.
And the only time -- Yeah. -This is insane.
-So, we would talk on the phone in between these takes,
and then, when we were changing setups
and we had a little bit of time, I would -- They put a ladder
over the wall of the stage, and I would climb up the ladder,
And he would come out of his van,
and we would talk to each other like Romeo and Juliet,
like, from the --
-He brought in this photo.
Here's you talking to Antoine Fuqua.
Look at this.
Jake, this is crazy.
-Literally, I would climb a ladder,
and we would just, like, yell at each other.
He'd be like, "Good take!" You know?
-Here's Antoine, his view from --
That's you talking to him.
This is wild. -Yeah.
-I mean, this is crazy that you guys even pulled this off.
-It was so amazing.
I mean, we know each other really well.
We're really good friends.
So we were able to trust each other from afar, you know?
But I've never made anything where I haven't been able to be
in physical proximity -- I mean, all the actors
were all over the world.
We did -- Basically, the movie is calls coming in,
so all the actors were calling in,
but they were all on Zoom, in Australia, in New York,
in Los Angeles, and it was just -- Our director in a van
down the block.
-What was he like?
Was he freaking out like, "I've never directed from a van.
What do I do?"
-He's a champ. He's a champ. -Yeah, he's brilliant.
-You look forward to those kind of things at a certain point --
that pressure and that tension.
I mean, it was hard that he did it, but it was --
-You would have no clue watching the movie,
'cause it's fantastic.
It's like, this is, I mean, edge of your seat.
I'm, like, going, "What?!"
I would have no idea you shot this in 11 days.
It's a crazy thriller.
You play a 911 operator.
Can you set it up? -Yeah, I play a 911 operator.
His name is Joe Baylor.
And he gets this call and, basically --
I don't want to give too much away,
because literally anything you say about the movie
gives something away.
-Kind of, yeah.
-So, he gets this call, and it basically
changes his entire night and then ultimately changes
his entire life.
And it's just a crazy ride.
It's just like a crazy 90-minute ride.
-You do such a great job with it, too.
Are you acting with the actors when you're acting
or you're just -- no, talking to --
-Oh, yeah, no, everything's live.
Everything's live.
We would do -- We broke the movie up into five parts,
so it's 20 minutes.
We did 20 pages a day, so 20-minute takes.
We'd do 20, 30 minutes.
We'd do the whole thing.
And they'd all call in,
and there would actually be phone calls.
And everything you see in the movie is live.
-I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Jake Gyllenhaal in "The Guilty."
Take a look at this.
-Emily, I need the color of the car, okay?
When I say the right one, say, "It's fine."
Red.
Blue. Black.
White. -It's fine.
-White?
-Yes.
-Is it -- is it a car?
-No.
-Truck?
-Van.
-No, just "yes" or "no" answers, Emily.
-I'm sorry. I have to hang up.
-Emily. -I have to hang up.
-Emily, don't hang up, okay?
Put the phone on the floor or in your pocket.
-Who are you talking to?
-Anywhere that he can't see it, alright?
Just keep it on so we can track you.
-Hang up.
-And if you can't, just call me back.
My name is Joe. I'll be waiting.
Emily, do you hear me? I will be waiting.
My name is -- [ Click ]
[ Beep ]
-Whoo! -That's what I'm talking about!
Jake Gyllenhaal, everybody.
"The Guilty" is in select theaters now
and on Netflix Friday.