I’ve completely blanked on the fact that there’s a movie called Life Itself and it’s designed to be a weepy movie for women. It’s from the creator of This Is Us, which I’m still not watching because I refuse to be emotionally manipulated by this BS. Anyway, Life Itself is getting terrible reviews, so I don’t feel so bad about blanking on it. Olivia Wilde is one of the stars of the movie, and she still has to get out there and promote it, crappy reviews or not. Which is why she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week and spent the entire time talking about her family rather than the movie. As it turns out, Olivia revealed something I never knew: Jason Sudeikis can’t smell. He doesn’t have a sense of smell, apparently? It’s some kind of medical condition and my mind is blown.
Olivia Wilde‘s fiancé Jason Sudeikis was born with an odd condition — but their 4½-year-old son, Otis Alexander, knows how to fix the problem! The Life Itself actress, 34, opened up to Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night about the fact that the Horrible Bosses star, 43, can’t smell or taste anything.
“Apparently it took quite a while for him to realize it,” Wilde told the Jimmy Kimmel Live host. “I had weirdly heard it from our mutual friends, and it was an awkward thing I brought up on our first date. I was like, ‘I heard you don’t smell so great.’ When our kids were born, he had a real Forrest Gump moment where he was like, ‘Is he normal? Can he smell?’ And Otis can smell, which is lucky for him. [Otis is] convinced he’s gonna diagnose the problem and fix it. So he’s like, ‘Dad, there is a Lego up your nose. You just have to breathe out really hard.’ He tries to coach him. He holds his face. He’s like ‘I’m gonna get it. Don’t worry.’ “
“The good thing is he thinks I am an incredible chef because he can’t taste anything,” Wilde said. “It’s a pretty crazy thing. But I guess if you’re gonna lose a sense … New York in the summer time, you don’t want your sense of smell.” When Kimmel asked the one thing the House alum wishes Sudeikis could sniff, she swiftly responded, “Sautéing onions. Garlic and onions. The beginning of a pasta.”
I can’t even imagine what it’s like to live without taste or smell, or to live with someone who can’t taste or smell! It must be both delightful and disastrous. To be someone – or with someone – who can’t taste when something is too garlicky or too overseasoned. To not be able to smell autumn, or the rain, or the smell of a good whiskey or a pineapple or ANYTHING? I guess if Jason has never experienced it, he doesn’t know what he’s missing. But still… it must affect both of their lives in deep ways.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
That’s awful…imagine not being able to taste food!
On a different note, I got Amazon prime this week and saw that This Is Us is on it. I was so excited, because I thought I would love it, but I watched the first episode and felt like it was so heavy handed and yes, emotionally manipulative. I only made it 30 mins in and gave up. I thought maybe it was just the pilot, but obviously that’s the feel of the whole show. I switched to Parenthood….and it is still quite watchable.
My husband cant smell. He lost his sense of smell over time due to nodules in the nose. It’s a real bummer. That’s why he likes spicy food because at least you can taste something. It sucks for me because I fancy myself a good cook but he never knows unless the texture is nice or not nice depending
I watched 3 episodes–I honestly couldn’t get over Kate’s storyline. I don’t know if the rest of the show is like that–but it seems to follow in the path of making her justified in disliking/hating her mom because she’s overweight/obese and because both are singers/love singing. Like I understand that we all have our irrational feelings/thoughts that we know are crappy, but we’re human and we’re jealous/not happy with ourselves, whatever. But to me the show seemed to veer into her being justified in how she felt. It’s not.
I think my mind thought this couple and Emily blunt/Office Guy were the same
People until I was today years old.
i just don’t find the show relatable, so I don’t watch it.
I can’t smell or taste either! I do like and dislike food but mostly because of texture. I’ve never really known differently. I like spicy food, and was told that many spices are felt differently? Not through taste or smell. Not sure if that’s true or not.
I’m quite a good cook though (so people say, they might be being polite!). The biggest issue is that I can’t tell if the house is a bit smelly, or if I’m a bit smelly, so I need to be hyper vigilant.
Spice (the heat) and peppermint both operate on pain, not taste receptors, so that’s interesting.
Can you ‘taste’ minty things?
Yes, I can taste mint! Or at least, I think I can. It is weird how it works. My mum used to be driven crazy by my ‘fussy eating’ until the doctor pointed out that I couldn’t taste. Some textures are so horrible that I can’t eat them, although I imagine the taste is good enough to make for it.
I can taste, but for a very long time I thought I had no sense of smell at all. Turns out I do, but it’s so weak I literally didn’t notice for the first two and a bit decades of my life. It’s like you say – only really a problem if I can’t tell if I smell bad, or my house does, etc! The only other thing that matters is that I realised early on that I can’t have a gas cooker if I’m living alone, or even use one if there’s nobody else around – twice in my teens I nearly blew up the kitchen because I couldn’t smell when I’d left the burner on, and it was only because someone else noticed in time that it turned out okay. I’ve been consciously trying to learn to differentiate between smells, and I am getting better, but I still can’t tell the difference between different spices, or if milk’s gone off, or when the pizza’s done, etc.
My mom also can’t smell or taste, she’s drawn to spicy, crunchy, and salty foods (so lots of chips and salsa) because they are the most “enjoyable” for her to eat .
Omg, first kisses, hugs, that whole pheromone-induced courtship ritual…to miss that? That feeling of being turned on by your guy/gal’s scent when you’re close, the taste of their skin? To miss out on THAT? 😫
Poor guy. Just the thought of what he’s missing out on…
For me – it’s the smell of my dog’s head that’s can’t imagine life without. I mdon’t an I love my husband and all that, but the pup’s head is my fave.
Adding onto that point, I actually lost my sense of smell for almost a week about two years ago when I had a terrible head cold. I couldn’t taste anything and it was honestly terrifying because of course I started googling it and there are people who loose it due to a sinus infection permanently. I was seriously depressed for those few days not being able to taste anything or smell anything because I LOVE food but the one thing that upset me the most was not being able to smell the sweet scent of my daughters forhead. I would go and smell her forehead every morning in her crib to see if I got my smell back yet and one morning finally I smelled it and I cried, for real.
This condition is also potentially dangerous, if you can’t detect certain odors like gas, or taste when food is off. I would be scared to have that condition if I had kids!!!
Unhappily right – smell is the first sense and is used to detect smoke, putrid foods, human/animal waste, etc. And there’s basic comfort at the same time, the smell of baking cookies, our loved ones etc. Very disorienting to lose it, but if he never had it, then he didn’t have to adapt.
Note: nasally administered zinc, as has been sold for colds, has been found responsible in many people for taking their sense of smell. Be careful out there!
This is a little scary. Can’t smell smoke, gas, or taste if food is expired. Feel for Jason.
I read an article once about people who can’t smell and how awful it can be – supposedly there are higher rates of depression and suicide. We take our sense of smell for granted and don’t realize how much smells enhance and inform our lives. And how texture is the only thing that distinguishes food if you have no sense of smell.
He’s talked about it before & it’s so intriguing. Idk. Things Olivia will never hear from him “Babe, you need a shower. You have too much perfume on. Is something burning? You smell so good! This is delicious! You left the gas on again” Ok, the last one is really terrifying
I passed out and hit my head very hard on a concrete floor years ago and lost my ability to taste and smell for years. I eventually got the ability back but it took a very long time. It was really strange.
I know two other people this has happened to as well. One slipped on the ice and smacked the back of their head hard and it was gone. How crappy a lotto is that win for you all, but I’m glad you got yours back! Not sure the other two are every going to
I want to know the reason behind this crazy haircut Jason is trying to pull off here. I hope it’s for a role because he did not loose his sight.
It’s awful, isn’t it? Long hair is not for him.
This is what I came here to say. Yack.
Yeah I really hope that’s for a role.
Michael Hutchence lost his sense of smell & taste after had been punched by someone & his head had been slammed really severely on the ground.
He was seeing Helena Christensen at the time & I remember reading that he said was devastated that he could no longer taste his girlfriend anymore.
I think it would be a soul destroying affliction.
I was JUST coming here to say that!!!! Over the years…I have seen documentaries and read articles that correlate the opinion that the depression that he got from that accident was DEVASTATING…because he LOVED sex…and because smells are such an integral part of the process…he felt that that avenue was forever closed to him…his friends think that is why the downward spiral regarding drugs intensified…and quite a few also think that the way he died…was not suicide…but auto-erotic asphyxiation as he had to push the envelope in a different way to get to the heights he experienced before his tragedy…
I will ALWAYS adore Michael…when I was 12 years old…in 1983…I saw them on their first small American tour…they played at the Cabaret Metro…on Clark Street…in Chicago…really small venue…but it was PACKED…and afterwards they hung out with everyone and talked and kicked it for HOURS…I got to sit on the stage with him…swinging my legs…looking adoringly as he let me have sips from his beer cup (I was almost 6 feet tall and looked like any grown woman from the neck down…however, I acted like a twee kid…which I was) and questioned me about being a girl in the world…
Sigh……………………
Now THAT is a story!!!
@Wellsie…that’s what I LOVED about the 80s…especially the early 80s…Chicago had such a VIBRANT music scene…and small venues that bought in acts from ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!! And I could hear that music listening to WXRT…and hanging out at Wax Traxx…reading imported music magazines like “Melody Maker”…and then chasing the music down…
I remember, I spent TWELVE DOLLARS for that ticket, because I had to use my own babysitting $$ to pay for it… For less than $20…I was able to see…THE WORLD during those days…
Sigh…
That’s an amazing story. I miss those days. My first “big” concert was seeing the black Crows at the Riv. Less than $20 for the ticket and parking. Great music. I would have loved to see INXS.
There’s an Ewan McGregor movie called Perfect Sense where he plays a chef trying to run a restaurant despite an epidemic that causes people to lose their senses of smell and taste. It was really kind of intriguing to think how to make food interesting and enjoyable even for people that lack those senses.
Eva Green. I actually love that movie and sob the last 5 minutes because of that scene!!
I had a college roommate who lost her sense of smell due to an accident. She had memories of how things smelled, so she tended to gravitate to those foods. She also began to eat spicy foods because she had a better chance of tasting those foods.
I know how much I hate losing my sense of smell and taste when I have a cold. I can’t imagine losing those senses forever! Poor Jason. With that said, I do like them as a couple.
I can’t believe that we went this whole article without mention of Jason’s hair! He looks ridiculous!
That was the only reason I clicked, to pile one the 90s sitcom hair-hate lol
Bill Pullman can’t either. I remember watching an interview of his in the late 90s (Leno or Conan) where he talked about trying to make a soup for his wife, and following the recipe, and thinking it was going to be outstanding… but it turned out to be not so much lol
I’ve had a soft spot for that dude ever since.
I think if you’re born that way…then it would be cool…because that’s your normal…
To lose that ability after you’re grown?!?!
I do not EVEN want to imagine….
My gramdma can’t smell or taste either (she was hit by a car and had a concussion). She told me the insurance compagny thought she was faking it so they sent someone who made her smell some kind of bleach and this person almost puked because of the smell and she was lie “Nope, still don’t smell anything”.
I always ask friends (and new people as a conversation starter) “if you had to lose one of your five senses, which would it be?”
Almost everyone I’ve come across says smell, and a few say hearing. I cannot imagine what it’s like not to have sense of smell since I love taste and smell (I also have the opposite of what Jason has, hyperosmia, which is acute sense of smell) – I always say eyesight (I don’t know how much I mean that, but I have terrible vision and reckon I’ll be close to blind once I’m in my 50’s).
See I would never pick smell because it’s a twofer, smell and taste. I couldn’t lose my vision, I used to work with people with vision impairments and it’s a very difficult way to get along in the world. You’re so acutely vulnerable.
My high schoolchemistry teacher had the same condition.
Of allmy senses, I wouldn’t mind losing that one. Maybe then I wouldn’t be chubby.
If I did not know what I was missing I don’t think I care about not having a sense of smell or taste. Imagine a life without Tim Tatian to eat all the time!
I was born without a sense of smell (it’s called congenital anosmia) and I only realised in the 6th grade that other people were working with more information than I had. So much food poisoning though. You can’t smell if something is burning or if there’s a gas leak, can’t smell if your baby needs to be changed. It sucks. It’s a health hazard and it’s socially isolating too.
I do have a perceived sense of taste although it’s different than for “normal” people (based more of texture of food, can’t identify spices, etc). My understanding is that what people perceive as a sense of taste is about 90% attributable to a sense of smell (which is why if you pinch your nose to eat something, you think you “taste” it less). So people who lose their sense of smell (as opposed to never had one) feel like they’ve lost their sense of taste.