Though he does have his own regrets about his behaviour when filming Zodiac, filmmaker David Fincher has described his lead star Jake Gyllenhaal as somebody who would turn up to the set of the movie in a “very scattered” state of mind.
Audiences found the film to be an incredible success following its 2007 release. The thriller told the true story of infamous criminal the Zodiac Killer, who operated in the San Francisco bay area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were never found.
Despite the hugely-popular release, there were many times on the set where Fincher and Gyllenhaal really didn’t get along.
Speaking with The New York Times, Fincher explained: “Jake was in the unenviable position of being very young and having a lot of people vie for his attention, while working for someone [himself] who does not allow you to take a day off. I believe you have to have everything out of your peripheral vision.
"I think Jake's philosophy was informed by - look, he'd made a bunch of movies, even as a child, but I don't think he'd ever been asked to concentrate on minutiae, and I think he was very distracted.”
He added that the star would turn up for work “very scattered”, though said that he “didn’t want to make excuses for my behaviour.”
Fincher continued: “There are definitely times when I can be confrontational if I see someone slacking. People go through rough patches all the time. I do. So I try to be compassionate about it.
"But. It's: Four. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. A Day. And we might not get a chance to come back and do it again.”
Fortunately, the two were able to put their personal grievances about one another aside so that they could make the best film possible; if Fincher hadn’t been as harsh or Gyllenhaal hadn’t pulled his finger out to put the work in, then the final product wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as it ended up being.
What’s most surprising about the bust-up, is that they managed to keep the on-set tensions out of the media at the time of filming. In fact, 13 years later, this is the first we’re hearing of there being any problems at all!
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