When the Danish film The Guilty premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, much of the audience exited the screening in a state of adrenaline overload or distress. Jake Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, felt inspired: He couldn’t help but wonder what an American version would look like, and he soon took it upon himself to find out. The end result, shot over the course of just 11 days, stars Gyllenhaal as a cop who’s on desk duty as a 911 operator when a frantic woman (played by Riley Keough) calls in to report that she’s been abducted. Then, she promptly hangs up. For W’s annual Best Performances issue, Gyllenhaal shares why he was so compelled to adapt The Guilty and recalls an entirely different anxiety-inducing experience: his early on-set encounter with Brad Pitt.
Tell me how The Guilty came to you.
I originally saw it as a Danish film, out of Sundance in 2018. I just immediately fell for it and thought, Wow, this would be so interesting in an American context.
