Jake Gyllenhaal Forgot Denis Quaid Was His Dad in 'Day After Tomorrow'

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Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid play father and son in Disney’s new animated movie “Strange World,” but it’s not the first time the actors have played family members on screen. Not that Gyllenhaal would remember, apparently. A recent “Strange World” junket interview with Yahoo Entertainment has gone viral for depicting Gyllenhaal seemingly forgetting that Quaid once played his father in “The Day After Tomorrow,” Roland Emmerich’s 2004 disaster movie.

“You and Jake obviously played father and son in ‘The Day After Tomorrow,’” the Yahoo reporter tells Quaid, who was participating in a joint “Strange World” interview with Gyllenhaal.

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

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

Gyllenhaal added, “Wow that’s cool. You know we’ve been doing a lot of interviews and you just blew my mind.”

While the two actors played father and son in “The Day After Tomorrow,” their characters spend most of the movie in different locales. Quaid’s Jack Hall, a NOAA paleoclimatologist, sets out on a rescue mission across the U.S. to rescue Gyllenhaal’s Sam, who becomes stranded in New York City during a climate change disaster. The two actors also didn’t spend much time together during the making of “Strange World,” as they recorded their voice parts at different times.

Gyllenhaal appears genuinely flabbergasted in the video when informed that he also played Quaid’s son in a movie 18 years ago. However, there’s always a chance Gyllenhaal is trolling fans. Who can forget the infamous “melancholy” video from Sundance 2019? In the clip, “Velvet Buzzsaw” director Dan Gilroy mispronounced the world “melancholy” and Gyllenhaal scolded him, “That’s not the first time today.” Gilroy later revealed it was just a bit the two came up with to make their Sundance press tour more fun.

In Disney’s “Strange World,” Gyllenhaal and Quaid voice Searcher and Jaeger Clade, respectively, two adventurers who find themselves on the surreal planet of Avalonia. The movie, directed by Don Hall, also features the voices of Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Lucy Liu. Variety film critic Peter Debruge gave the film a positive review, calling it “a Jules Verne-worthy step into fresh territory, both creatively and in terms of character.”

“Strange World” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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