FILM · 2015
Accidental Love
23 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (23)
- #001
Production on Accidental Love was halted repeatedly due to financial problems. In May 2008, Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel walked off the set after producers failed to show they had enough money to pay the cast. Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced it would keep the entire cast away from the film until the production company showed that sufficient funds had been set aside in a union-authorized account. When the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) learned that below-the-line crew members had not been paid, union leaders called on staff members to boycott the production. In June 2008, production was halted again when several crew members failed to show up for work because they had not been paid.
- #002
Director David O. Russell left the project in July 2010 after talks with financier Ron Tutor ended in failure. In the credits he was listed as "Stephen Greene," echoing the old "Alan Smithee" pseudonym used by directors who disowned the final version of a film they may have directed at some point but over which they had no creative control.
- #003
Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher hid the film negatives to prevent Capitol from releasing an unpolished version of the film, and they postponed the shooting of the key scene in which Jessica Biel's character is injured by a nail gun to the last day of filming. With only two days of shooting left, a union finally withdrew its support for the film, so the sequence was never shot. It was later added digitally.
- #004
In 2011, David Bergstein assembled everything that had been shot and held test screenings in Los Angeles. The crew was unaware.
- #005
The opening title scene, in which an ice cream truck drives down a street in a small town in Indiana, was actually shot in New Milford, Connecticut. The footage is B-roll from the remake of Mr. Deeds (2002).
- #006
It was shot in 2008. By the time it premiered in 2015, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare") had been enacted, which made the film's message about health care completely meaningless. The film was marketed as a romantic comedy rather than the intended political satire.
- #007
During the 2008 shoot, James Caan quit the film after having creative disagreements with the director over his character's death scene.
- #008
The film's copyright date is 2013, indicating that the final edit was completed two years before its release.
- #009
It was originally a Capitol Films production. When Capitol's financial troubles made it impossible to pay the cast and crew, its main backers, David Bergstein and Ron Tutor, shelved the film.
- #010
Jessica Biel's and Tracy Morgan's contracts required them to take part in reshoots that did not involve director David O. Russell.
- #011
Lindsay Lohan auditioned for the role of Alice Eckle.
- #012
David Bergstein attributed the film's financial troubles to the 2008 financial collapse, but the producers believed they were "intentionally squeezed."
- #013
If the crucial scene in which Jessica Biel's character is shot in the head with a nail looks blurry and confusing, that is because it was never filmed. For an unexplained reason, it was decided to shoot this scene last, but when it could not be filmed because of the collapse in financing, it had to be created with clumsy editing.
- #014
Ryan Reynolds was considered for the role of Howard Birdwell.
- #015
Screenwriter Kristin Gore is the daughter of politician Al Gore.
- #016
Producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher first learned that the film had been completed without their knowledge when their daughter invited them to a test screening of Accidental Love (2015).
- #017
When it was finally released, the film was a major flop, grossing just over $139,000 against a $26 million budget.
- #018
This is the third film in which Lindsay Lohan was to play a love interest opposite Jake Gyllenhaal but in which she did not appear in a leading role. The first was The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and the second was Source Code (2011).
- #019
It is the second film directed by David O. Russell to be rated PG-13.
- #020
The film's production was reportedly shut down 14 times because of cash-flow problems.
- #021
Jake Gyllenhaal and Catherine Keener had previously appeared together in the 2001 film Lovely & Amazing.
- #022
Scott mentions Oakley several times in the film. James Marsden had worn Oakley sunglasses in the X-Men films.
- #023
After playing Scott Summers in the X-Men films, James Marsden takes on a character named Scott for the second time.
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