Jake Gyllenhaal 'learned a lot' from Prince of Persia flop 

Jake Gyllenhaal "learned a lot" after his movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, was a huge flop. 

The 38-year-old actor has starred in critically-acclaimed films including Donnie Darko, Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain, which earned him an Academy Award nomination as well as a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. 

However, his career took a turn when he landed the lead role of Prince Dastan in Disney's video game adaptation, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, alongside Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina back in 2010, as the movie was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.   

Gyllenhaal reflected on his role in the film during a chat with Yahoo!, and admitted that he didn't really think his decision through.   

"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. 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," he explained.  

His bad decision barely affected his career, as he went on to star in Love & Other Drugs with Anne Hathaway, Nightcrawler, Everest and Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, alongside Amy Adams and Michael Shannon.  

Now, he's earning rave reviews for his role as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, opposite Tom Holland.  

Back in 2004, Gyllenhaal was in talks to replace the original web-slinging superhero Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man 2 after he suffered an injury during the production of Seabiscuit. Maguire went on to play the character in the sequel and a third instalment.