The Industry

The Industry

Daily Edition

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Killer Instinct

The Industry's avatar
The Industry
May 23, 2024
∙ Paid

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

​ Jake Gyllenhaal’s guilt, Peter Dinklage's twin, Ayo Edebiri's hunt, Janus Films goes with the Flow and a leopard.

Let’s go!


Presumed Innocent. Apple TV+.

Jake Gyllenhaal is drawn to death.

In his most recent project, the Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent, he plays a married prosecutor accused of murdering his mistress

​The newly released trailer (below) paints two distinct sides of Gyllenhaal. One one of which is familiar territory:

  1. Devoted family man

  2. Man on the edge of death, as seen in:

    • Donnie Darko (2001)

    • Zodiac (2007)

    • Nightcrawler (2014)​

The latter category is the cornerstone of what makes a Gyllenhaal performance so watchable because whether he is reckoning with his own demise (Donnie Darko), hunting a killer (Zodiac), or filming deadly crimes (Nightcrawler), he is perpetually tormented.

And we like to see Gyllenhaal breaking at the seams.

In Presumed Innocent, when Gyllenhaal is caught having texted his mistress 30 times on the night of her murder, he begins to spiral, proclaiming:

“They’re going to see that I was obsessed with her, I was basically stalking her.”

What makes this performance unique is the degree to which the other characters in the series believe Gyllenhaal's innocence will hinge entirely on his ability to convince them of his non-violent nature.

His playing against type is now a matter of life and death.

Apple TV+ is releasing Presumed Innocent on June 12.

For More:

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Industry to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 The Industry · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture