Jake Gyllenhaal Was Almost Cast in ‘Ex Machina’ but His ‘Needs’ Were Too Much: ‘It Was Never Going to Work’

Jake Gyllenhaal was the ex-actor set to star in Alex Garland’s feature debut “Ex Machina.”

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Garland’s longtime producer Andrew Macdonald confirmed during the 2024 Edinburgh Film Festival (via Deadline ) that Gyllenhaal was in talks to take on the lead role in the 2014 drama. Oscar Isaac was instead later cast as the elusive billionaire character.

“The sales companies wanted us to cast Jake Gyllenhaal because he was bankable and they could sell foreign territories,” Macdonald said during a Q&A at the festival. “ That would have changed the whole film .”

However, negotiations with Gyllenhaal’s team proved that it wasn’t the right fit.

“I remember having a conversation with Jake Gyllenhaal’s lawyer about his needs,” Macdonald said. “It was never going to work.”

IndieWire has reached out to Gyllenhaal’s representatives for comment.

While Isaac and Alicia Vikander were ultimately cast in the film, Macdonald admitted that their respective star power at the time fell short to “raise the money through international sales.” It was actually Isaac’s lead role in “Inside Llewyn Davis” that led to “Ex Machina” landing funding.

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“We decided to make the film with Universal International and they had a film with Oscar Isaac, the Coen brothers film, and they believed it would win Oscars, so they thought he was a winner,” Macdonald said. “They also had an Alicia Vikander film that they thought was gonna be a winner as well, so they backed us.”

Garland added that the “Ex Machina” production was the opposite of other “toxic” sets he had been on as a screenwriter prior to making his directorial debut.

“The cast was young and hard-working and committed,” Garland said. “We had a friendly crew that believed in the project and were working hard. There was a good vibe, and everyone was pulling together.”

Garland went on to direct “Annihilation,” “Men,” and “Civil War.” He recently wrote the sequel script for “28 Years Later” as part of a franchise trilogy with Danny Boyle returning to direct.

Garland shut down retirement rumors in an interview with IndieWire , saying he is instead “going to take a break from directing for the foreseeable future” and focus on screenwriting.

“Just to go back to the statement, I said: I’m going to take a break from directing or I’m going to stop directing for the foreseeable future. That is such an uncontentious thing to say,” Garland told IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio. “I also said what I’m going to do is screenwriting. Screenwriting is filmmaking. You can’t erase screenwriters or DOPs or editors or actors from the process of screenwriting. Filmmaking is not the preserve solely of directors.”