Jake Gyllenhaal and O-T Fagbenle Discuss the Thrill of Filming ‘Presumed Innocent’

Jake Gyllenhaal and O-T Fagbenle star as Rusty Sabich and Nico Della Guardia in Presumed Innocent. The first two episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+ and new episodes will be released weekly, every Wednesday through July 24.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series starring and executive produced by Jake Gyllenhaal, hailing from David E. Kelley and executive producer J.J. Abrams and is based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Scott Turow. Starring Gyllenhaal in the lead role of chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich, the series takes viewers on a gripping journey through the horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney’s office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The series explores obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.

Gyllenhaal, who is also an executive producer, makes his series debut in the thriller. The actor opened up about how the role challenged and excited him in ways he had not experienced before, sharing, “I think just sort of the length of storytelling, the ability to delve into more specific sort of situations and more variety as a result of the length and opportunity through like eight episodes. Eight hours of a story is, obviously, more opportunity and also, just the fact that we all didn’t really know what was gonna happen. When we first started shooting, we had the first maybe two or three [scripts] and then, we didn’t know as we went along, what was gonna happen. So we were in the dark at the same time that you are when you’re watching it in that way and I’d never experienced that before.”

Going off of that sentiment, Fagbenle then explained, “You kind of are forced, in a way, to live as the character is living with a complete uncertainty of what’s happening next. For my character, Nico, I’ve got these great scenes with Peter [Sarsgaard], who is a bit of a live wire, and there’s so much at stake for Nico. He’s got his whole career in the balance with this person who’s completely unpredictable and so, as I’m reading it, I’m like, ‘He did what? Why is he doing that?’ So it’s… you kind of live it in the moment.”