Jake Gyllenhaal riffed on Hot Ones about riffing while filming Guy Richie's The Covenant

Jake Gyllenhaal called working with Guy Ritchie “one of the most inspiring creative experiences I’ve ever had”

By Emma Keates  |  April 13, 2023 | 6:38pm
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Jake Gyllenhaal riffed on Hot Ones about riffing while filming Guy Richie's The Covenant
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Jake Gyllenhaal on Hot Ones Screenshot: YouTube/First We Feast

While parading out one of Taylor Swift’s most notorious exes while many of her fans are still in very public mourning over the star’s recent breakup may be a bold choice, to say the least, Hot Ones’ Sean Evans is nothing if not an agent of chaos. Plus, as we learn in the spicy interview series’ season 20 finale, Evans and co. had been. trying to secure the Spider-Man: Far From Home star for a little longer than 10 minutes.

“The prep work [for Hot Ones] came from being constantly battered by you guys for a number of years to come on the show,” said Jake Gyllenhaal, before conquering what he later admitted was a pretty deep-seated fear of the wings of death. “I burst through a thing that I was a little bit nervous about… and I am grateful to you for that,” the actor said after completing the gauntlet. We guess Swifties can rest a bit easier knowing Gyllenhaal is at least undergoing some sort of therapy.

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Gyllenhaal spent the rest of his interview discussing the literal heights he was willing to go for past roles, including having live flies thrown in his face while filming Jarhead, getting sick after simulated altitude training with Josh Brolin for Everest, and being forced to scale a line above a 15 hundred foot drop (despite his fear of heights) in Iceland with Bear Grylls.

The actor’s most recent challenge was more cerebral. Gyllenhaal spent the early portion of his interview discussing the unique nature of his work with Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie on the set of his newest film Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (yes, that is the official title), in which Gyllenhaal stars as a U.S. soldier whose life is saved by an interpreter (Dar Salim) in Afghanistan.

“With Guy, it was unlike anything I’ve ever done,” he said. “He said to me, ‘don’t memorize any of your lines’ and the script came in 50 pages. It wasn’t a fully written script–usually scripts are, like, 110 pages–and I was like ‘what is this?’ when he first sent it. And he said, ‘You’ll come to set, we’ll work on it on the day, and you’ll go shoot your thing.’”

“It was one of the most inspiring creative experiences I’ve ever had because it asked for total let go,” he continued. “I loved it.”

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant premieres in theaters April 21.

 
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