Which Movie Does Jake Gyllenhaal Regret Doing?

Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t proud of leading Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Based on the fan-favorite video game series of the same name, Walt Disney Studios premiered its “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” adaptation on May 28, 2010.

The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan, who, alongside Gemma Arterton’s Tamina, has to protect the time-turning Sands of Time from the forces of evil while simultaneously trying to figuring out who killed King Sharaman (Sir Ben Kinglsey).

All in all, the flick did reasonably well critically and financially, though, in the years since its release, it has become a hot topic on the Hollywood scene, and not for good reason.

It’s often touted as a prime example of the film industry’s issue with whitewashing, which is an issue that continues to plague the silver screen to this day.

Despite playing the main character, Jake Gyllenhaal himself has come out and expressed his belief that signing on to “Prince of Persia” was a serious misstep.

“I think I learned a lot from that movie in that I spend a lot of time trying to be very thoughtful about the roles that I pick and why I’m picking them,” he told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2019.

“And you’re bound to slip up and be like, ‘That wasn’t right for me,’ or ‘That didn’t fit perfectly.’ There have been a number of roles like that. And then a number of roles that do.”

Proper representation in media is of the utmost importance, more so today than it has ever been. “Prince of Persia” was a huge step backward in this regard, employing a white actor to portray a traditionally Iranian character.

Thankfully, Jake Gyllenhaal has seen the error of his ways and now contributes to the elimination of the whitewashing issue as opposed to egging on its continuation.