prodigal son

Jake Gyllenhaal appears to forget Dennis Quaid played his dad in The Day After Tomorrow

Jake Gyllenhaal, April 2022
Jake Gyllenhaal (Photo: Shutterstock)

Is this for real? Or is Jake Gyllenhaal trolling a reporter?

The Brokeback Mountain actor has been busy doing press for the new Disney movie, Strange World. In it, Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid play a son and father.

The actors did an interview with a Yahoo reporter earlier this week. The journalist reminded the duo it wasn’t the first time they’d played family. Quid played Gyllenhaal’s dad in the 2004 disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow.

“You and Jake obviously played father and son in ‘The Day After Tomorrow,’” the Yahoo reporter said to Quaid.

“We did?” Gyllenhaal cut in. “Oh…Oh, oh! Whoah! That’s the guy who played my dad.”

A slightly wary Quaid says, “It’s the first time we’ve been in the same room together. That’s me.”

In The Day After Tomorrow, their characters are largely based in different locations. They also did voice acting for Strange World in different locations.

“Wow that’s cool,” responded Gyllenhaal. “You know we’ve been doing a lot of interviews and you just blew my mind,” he says to the reporter. Watch below.

Related: Jake Gyllenhaal reveals the moment his relationship with Heath Ledger became intimate

Although Gyllenhaal appears shocked, others believe he was being sarcastic. It’s likely many other reporters also pointed out that Quaid and Gyllenhaal have played dad and son before.

Back in 2019, Gyllenhaal did a press tour for Velvet Buzzsaw. In one interview, he corrected director Dan Gilroy’s pronunciation of the word “melancholy”. Gilroy later revealed it was something he and Gyllenhaal came up with the make their Sundance press tour a little more light-hearted.

Strange World disappoints at the box office

Gyllenhaal and Quaid play voice Searcher and Jaeger Clade in Strange World. The movie has opened to positive reviews. However, opening on Wednesday with hopes of a big Thanksgiving holiday weekend box office, early figures are disappointing.

It took $4.2 million on its opening day. Variety described this as “bombing”, and predicted it might take just $24 million over the entire weekend (against a budget of $180 million).

Related: Cue the conservative outrage! Disney just unveiled another new LGBTQ character

The movie has already provoked some right-wing ire for featuring a queer teen boy. Pressure groups such as One Million Moms and podcaster Ben Shapiro have warned followers not to go see it.

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