Back to All News
Jake Gyllenhaal and Antoine Fuqua Open Up About The Guilty's' Many Unique Challenges
Netflix Staff
Entertainment
29 September 2021
GlobalUnited States
Six years after the boxing drama Southpaw, actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Antoine Fuqua reunite for the new Netflix thriller The Guilty. Based on the 2018 Danish film of the same name, Gyllenhaal stars as a troubled police detective who is demoted to 911 operator duty and scrambles to save a distressed caller during a harrowing day of revelations - and reckonings. Because of the unique premise - with many dramatic scenes taking place with Gyllenhaal on the phone - the entire shoot only required 11 days and three on-screen cast members, including Gyllenhaal, who also produced the film with Fuqua. Ahead of The Guilty's Oct. 1 Netflix release, the duo discussed what brought them to the project, their behind-the-scenes research and the film's many unique challenges.
How did each of you get involved with the film?
ANTOINE FUQUA: I got a phone call from my friend Jake, and he said he had a script that he thought I was perfect for. I read it that night and called him, I think, the next day and said, Im in. Obviously, to work with Jake again was a big plus. I love the guy, and the subject matter was as perfect as he said it would be for me.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Antoine and I share something really special, sort of indescribable. We have an instinct together when theres a piece of material. There was something I felt I understood about The Guilty, something underneath that I always related to very deeply, it thrilled me and inspired me. And so, it was a no-brainer and also no surprise that Antoine committed as quickly as I did. He was the only other person besides me, who, as soon as he read the story, was like, Im in. Thats how I felt too. And that bond that we have, thats hard to put into words, comes through in the film. Its so wonderful being able to work with someone more than once and know that you trust them already, to know that theyll go as far as youll go and vice versa.
What kind of research did you do for the film?
FUQUA: Myself and Jake both have friends in this world that weve known for a long time, and what I needed to do was go to a 911 call center, so I went to one in West Valley and the captain there Dave Storaker he helped us a lot. He walked us through the call center and introduced us to some of the people, and gave us some insights on what they go through daily on a personal level, and a lot of technical things, obviously, we needed to learn about the headsets and how it works.
What was most striking was just the human connection when you go to a place like that and you see people that look like your mom, or your brother, or your cousin - and youre not just a voice on the phone- who had to live with someone elses trauma every day, listen to people calling obviously, on the worst day of their lives. And the people that they call at the 911 center take on that stress as well.
What were some of the unique challenges that you had to work through in the film from working in one location, working with the actors that Jake speaks to on the phone?
FUQUA: It is a film about sound, about listening, about what you hear, and what the reality is. Capturing that is a whole other story, practically, because at that time we were filming, it was during the height of COVID, so we couldnt have actors going to a regular stage and record, so we had to come up with a system with our sound guy on how to get these special boxes to actors who were all over the world, and then get their recording, but then do it live with Jake while hes in a room performing, without any glitches.
Well, that didnt happen at all. I think he had about five or six different voices in his ear at the same time because of the technical issues. We had to work off of the Zoom system as well. We figured it out eventually. I think Jake had probably performed each scene like it was a play, constantly, over and over and over, because the calls were coming back-to-back. Theres not a lot of cuts in between each call, so we had to almost do the entire script, in certain sections, as a play, with voices in his ear. It was challenging but it was amazing because of what happens naturally: it makes you lean in more because it was so difficult to hear. We use a lot of the dialogue from the first Zoom calls, cause the performances are just so raw, and, and a lot of Jakes performance was so intense.
GYLLENHAAL: When I first sent the script to Antoine, what I said was, Lets shoot this movie in five days. That really got us going excited, the idea that we could shoot the movie in a very short period of time, the pressure would be on, just like its on Joe Baylors character. And if theres anything I know about Antoine, he loves that pressure, and we both thrive in that space.
So, we set this goal for ourselves, and slowly, that 5 days turned into 11 days. So we shot the movie and scheduled it for 11 days, and we designed this idea that we break it up into five sections and each one would be around 15 to 20 pages, and wed shoot one of those sections every day. So, I would prepare Section 1, 2, 3, 4, and I would call Antoine as a secret and Id say, I have 1 to 4 memorized. He said, Dont tell anybody. We still have 11 days. Maybe we can shoot it in 9.
The Guilty is available to stream Oct. 1 on Netflix.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
Back to All News
