Jake Gyllenhaal and director Antoine Fuqua discuss how they were able to film The Guilty in just 11 days. The latest Netflix original to take the streamer by storm is The Guilty, a heart-pounding thriller that recently made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. It premiered on Netflix this past weekend, as well as in some select theaters. Based on the 2018 Danish movie of the same name, The Guilty stars Gyllenhaal as a 911 operator put in a precarious situation during an otherwise routine shift.
Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) is a demoted police officer relegated to working the 911 phones when he receives a call from a woman who has been abducted. He springs into action to try and find her, but with limited information and his position confined to a desk, it is far from an easy process. The Guilty was filmed last year amid the coronavirus pandemic and, like most productions that took place in 2020, had to adopt some unique methods on set. The production was notable because it took just 11 days to complete, an impressive number for a thriller.
While speaking to Collider about The Guilty, Fuqua and Gyllenhaal opened up about how they managed to pull it off. Upon first receiving the question, Fuqua quipped, "I couldn’t even tell you right now. You know, we just did it." He then elaborated further on the process, explaining that it came down to a mixture of schedules and the power of those working on the film. Fuqua said:
It just felt like something that needed to happen. Right, the height of COVID, the story was compelling, I was available for a short period, Jake was available for a short period… We just had to make it work. And it really is a credit to our industry and the people who work in our industry, everybody [who] came on board, art director, production designers, DPs… I mean, everybody jumped on this movie to make it work knowing we were under pressure for time during COVID to keep everyone safe. So I think it was just one of those things where we just did it.
Gyllenhaal added that, even before starting work on The Guilty, he felt the quicker production schedule was necessary. "I think it was sort of baked into the process and into the story from the jump," he said. "I don’t know how much you could indulge a story like that. It needed to be done with a time clock." The Guilty tells its entire shocking story in just an hour and a half, so one could see how the desire to keep everything tight would even apply to the filming process. With just 11 days, Gyllenhaal, Fuqua, and the rest of the creative team must've felt plenty of pressure in real life, just as Joe does in the movie. Granted, his pressure is far more serious, but that can still be reflected onscreen.
Filming in the midst of a pandemic has plenty of challenges, and those behind The Guilty certainly rose to the occasion. Shorter production schedule aside, Fuqua directed from a van parked down the street after he came in contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID just days before filming was to begin. When considering all these outside obstacles and increased challenges, it's truly impressive to see how The Guilty managed to come together in the end. Now it's out in the world for audiences to see and decide if all that hard work really did pay off.
Source: Collider