Spider-Man: Jake Gyllenhaal Recalls "Absurd" Conversations Over Mysterio's Beard Length

With any given movie there are thousands of decisions that need to be made across the years that something spends in development, production, and so on. Some of those are huge decisions like a title for the film or a star that will anchor the entire thing, and some of them are things like "How long should Jake Gyllenhaal's beard be when he plays Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home?" Speaking in a new interview Howard Stern, Gyllenhaal opened up about working on the set of the 2019 Marvel Studios sequel, offering high praise for how they do things but also laughing about how "absurd" some of the conversations were about his character.

"Well beard length was definitely an issue for that one, I didn't have a lot of control of the length of the beard," Gyllenhaal said. "The beard was already something they desired. I think so, I mean look I got there, you know there's that first day before you start and everyone's like 'Longer? Shorter? Well if we go shorter we're going to have to commit to this.' It's absurd, but there was an ease, there's an ease in those movies. Even though there's all that pressure there's a little bit of ease where they're like 'Eh, all right. Beard's not as nice as Chris Evans' but it'll do."

Gyllenhaal elaborated on further about working on a Marvel Studios set, revealing that even though these are massive movies with a lot of movie parts they're not afraid to make changes if someone on set has a better idea about something.

"It's hard, man,"  he added. "That acting is hard....All of it. That world is enormous. And I joined that world way into that run; a train that was already moving. Normally, I come in way early on, and I get to figure it out. It was like you gotta deliver in that space and it was a whole different craft. They're moving with ideas which is so fun about it, it's actually really creative....They have a structure for the movie but like if someone has a good idea, if you bring a better idea, they will shift an entire day around that idea. For me, I loved it."

Gyllenhaal's time in the world of Spider-Man might be over after Far From Home, but considering the multiversal, variant-populated Spider-Man: No Way Home, we can't rule it out until the film debuts in December.