The Big Picture

Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard discuss legal drama acting protocol in an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub.
Rusty’s life crumbles after an affair and murder trial, creating suspense and unpredictability in “Presumed Innocent.”
Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard’s praise each other’s roles in “Nightcrawler” and “The Lost Daughter.”

Apple TV+’s thrilling new series, Presumed Innocent, just celebrated its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, and this erotic legal drama is already raking in plenty of praise. On top of its stellar cast, led by Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ruth Negga, Gyllenhaal told us as they filmed the series, none of the actors knew what would happen in the next episode, or where it was all going.

The title, Presumed Innocent, leaves the weighty implication hanging — “until proven guilty.” Like the 1990 film starring Harrison Ford and the 1987 novel it’s based on, Apple’s series is about prosecutor Rusty Sabbich (Gyllenhaal), who’s put on the case of his colleague, Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) when she’s found brutally murdered in her home. When it comes to light that Rusty was involved in an affair with Carolyn and that he harbored an obsessive interest in her, his life begins to crumble, with those closest to him in danger of the fallout.

In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard discuss the protocol for playing characters in a legal drama, why the “persuasion” of acting in any role never changes, and the unusually unique way the actors filmed this particular show. They also discuss each other’s performances in past works, like Nightcrawler and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter.

You can watch the full interview in the video above or read the transcript below.

Presumed Innocent (2024) It tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime.Cast Jake Gyllenhaal , Tate Birchmore , Kingston Rumi Southwick , Roberta Bassin Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

Jake Gyllenhaal Teases ‘Presumed Innocent’ Is the ‘Zodiac’ of TV
“Every other show has a resolution, but this one’s unique.”
Image via Apple TV+

COLLIDER: Congrats on the series. My one complaint is I haven’t gotten to see Episode 8 yet, so if there is anything you can do to get me Episode 8, let me know.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: There are only seven episodes, Steve. That’s it, so I hope you enjoyed them.

[Laughs] I did. I would like to know the resolution, but that’s just me.

GYLLENHAAL: That’s the whole play.

PETER SARSGAARD: Then they say, “That’s life!”

GYLLENHAAL: The whole play is like, “Every other show has a resolution, but this one’s unique.”

SARSGAARD: Life goes on. Nobody ever knows anything.

GYLLENHAAL: It’s the Zodiac of television shows.

I’m glad you brought up Zodiac, so I didn’t have to. I appreciate that.

‘Road House 2’ Is “Gonna Be Exciting”
Image via Amazon MGM Studios

This is my stupid question, and it goes to Jake. Do you think it was our interview and us talking about Road House 2 that led to Road House 2 happening?

GYLLENHAAL: I’m gonna have to talk with Amazon legal because then it may be that you need a credit on it. But we can talk about that, Steve. [Laughs] Yes, the answer is yes. Yeah, unabashedly. There you go. How’s that?

I am very happy about the success of the film, and I am excited to see a sequel.

GYLLENHAAL: It’s gonna be exciting.

Jake, besides this show, if someone has never seen anything that Peter has done, what do you recommend watching first and why? And Peter, if someone has not seen what Jake has done, what do you recommend watching first and why?

SARSGAARD: The one where he played the coyote.

GYLLENHAAL: That is one weird Google search. But yeah, sure.

SARSGAARD: You know the one I’m talking about. Come on, if I say “the one where he played the coyote,” what movie am I talking about?

I actually don’t know off the top of my head.

GYLLENHAAL: I think I know what you talking about. Nightcrawler. He’s a coyote.

Image via Open Road Films

Oh, you’re right. My bad.

SARSGAARD: I have never seen such a fucking awesome animal exercise in my entire life. Honestly, this work in that movie…

GYLLENHAAL: This is how actors talk.

SARSGAARD: Yeah, this is why we’re talking “animal exercises.”

GYLLENHAAL: That’s what we do at the dinner table. “Do an animal exercise for me.”

SARSGAARD: No, his work in that is so committed. I don’t think I interacted with you that much when you were doing it. I mean, I saw you here and there, but when you see someone who’s just completely subsumed in something, you know what it looks like. We don’t usually sustain it for an entire movie. For me, it’s a complex answer for most actors that I follow, like Jake, where I would be like, “This part of this, or this part of that.” The little crazy move you had in that movie with Hugh Jackman…

GYLLENHAAL: Prisoners.

SARSGAARD: He just had this whole inner life. Actually, in terms of the degree of difficulty, I know what that part looked like on the page, and then what he brings to it is basically 99% of the role. You can tell when someone’s doing that. The same thing with both of those.

GYLLENHAAL: It was a very good script, too. But the thing that I think is important with actors is that you look at not just one, but you look at a couple of them. If you look at Peter in my sister’s, [Maggie Gyllenhaal’s], film, The Lost Daughter, and you see the character he is in that movie, which is in a movie filmed with extraordinary performances, what he does in that and the power of him and the versatility, but also the sexiness of that character, and then you go to a film like Memory, which he just did, and you see the vulnerability and the humanness and the fragility of that person — that’s really an acting exercise, is to watch the two things up against each other. So, I think Peter just gets better and better and richer and richer because he’s always had this incredible well of talent. He’s always been one of the best actors around, but I think more and more recently, like those two up against each other, I’d really recommend.

Related Peter Sarsgaard on ‘The Lost Daughter’ and What it’s Like Filming a Love Scene Directed by Your Wife He also talks about why he prepares more for dialogue scenes than emotional ones.

SARSGAARD: Don’t you think that all artists are allowed to be streaky, though, in many other mediums, where you’re like, “Oh, there’s this period of this artist or this period of that artist?” With actors, we’re expected to have a much higher batting average, I think, than most because it’s so closely tied to money, right? I really think that acting isn’t just a straight line of getting better or something like that. I think it’s like you realize something, you forget it. Oh, you realize it again, along with something else. Then there are periods where you have a change in your personal life, and your priorities are different for a while, and then you roll up your sleeves and you get back to doing something else. I don’t think people realize the complex nature of trying to be an artist in a very commercial medium.

The other thing about the medium is that it’s only once in a while where art and commerce meet in this magical place where everyone is happy.

SARSGAARD: And then we all know, and we go, “There’s Pulp Fiction.” [Laughs]

The Cast of ‘Presumed Innocent’ Never Knew What Would Happen Next

I’ve got to talk about the show, and you’re both so fantastic in it, and you both play lawyers. As an actor, when you are going to be delivering speeches, if you will, in front of an audience like the jurors, are you preparing any differently as an actor to play a lawyer? Is there any difference in that preparation process?

GYLLENHAAL: I didn’t. I mean, there’s protocol, obviously, like behavioral protocol and the ways in which you present yourself and things like that, but really, I didn’t find it any different. There’s a persuasion, right? As an actor, you need to have an intention, and you need to be persuasive.

SARSGAARD: There are some loose rules to court which we all learned, like would you be standing or seated? “Well, you could generally do whatever you want at any given time, but if you were standing, it would mean this. What would the jury perceive your standing to mean?” You’re really playing to that audience the whole time, and that’s one of the interesting things about it. It’s a lot like acting on that level. I’m trying to tell a convincing story to these people who ultimately are going to decide this person’s fate. So, it felt natural to me. But my closest, closest ally a lot of the time was our lawyer on set, who really helps me with so much, not just understanding what I was saying.

GYLLENHAAL: I think, too, what was really nice about this was that we obviously weren’t so sure what was going to be happening, right? We were learning as we went, as well, the same as the audience. So, whatever was going on in the personal lives of all these characters, we were bringing to the courtroom with us, but we didn’t know what was ahead. So you’re arguing for the moment. In all of those things, you’re really arguing for the moment. Most often, when you’re acting you already kind of know what’s going to happen. We didn’t know. So, that was interesting. It was like you were coming to a trial every day. There was a reality to it.

SARSGAARD: I know. I would think about that with Bill Camp sometimes as I would look over. Early on, I’d be like, “Now, I know there are eight episodes, and I know Bill is working a certain number,” and so I would imagine, “That means this or that.” You start trying to piece things together based on the scant information that we have by knowing this guy’s just booked a place to stay here for the next two months. [Laughs] And also, the thing with Bill in particular is that character was so interesting because he really looked like a guy who was just wanting to retire already. “Isn’t it over?” “One last thing…” “Oh, Jesus… Oh my god.” He just wanted to go back to Topanga Canyon and he couldn’t!

The first two episodes of Presumed Innocent are now available on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Watch on Apple TV