Jake Gyllenhaal went viral in early August. He did an interview with Vanity Fair to promote his work with Prada – he’s the face of Prada’s new cologne Luna Rossa Ocean. During the interview, Jake was asked about his shower ritual and his quote went viral. VF had just published the interview the night before, and when I posted this quote on Twitter, that became the jumping-off point for people to yell about how Jake is stank-ass. Again, here’s the full quote, in context:
VF: Is there anything revelatory about your shower ritual?
Gyllenhaal: I always am baffled that loofahs come from nature. They feel like they’ve been made in a factory but, in fact, it’s just not true. Since I was young, it’s amazed me. More and more I find bathing to be less necessary, at times. I do believe, because Elvis Costello is wonderful, that good manners and bad breath get you nowhere. So I do that. But I do also think that there’s a whole world of not bathing that is also really helpful for skin maintenance, and we naturally clean ourselves.
Maybe it’s just my bias against Jake, but I find him humorless and unlikely to joke around, especially in interviews. He seems quite earnest, actually. So I took his comments as just Jake accidentally telling the truth, that he truly believes that people naturally clean ourselves, that bathing is less necessary for him. As Jake began promoting his latest film, The Guilty, he was asked about these comments and he now claims he was being sarcastic AND ironic. Hm.
Jake Gyllenhaal has clarified that he does shower following his previous comments claiming that he finds bathing to be “less necessary, at times”.
Asked about his hygiene routine over the weekend, he joked: “By the way, I [filmed] an independent film, of course I don’t shower. What are you writing about? Of course, we don’t have money for the showers. I think, by the way, anyone who’s used a trailer, has the shower ever really worked? They don’t work in trailers, the sinks barely do.”
Addressing his previous comments, the 40-year-old said: “I don’t know what it was, it was an answer to a question where I was being sarcastic and ironic and it has followed me around.”
The Donnie Darko star quipped: “Unfortunately I showered before I came here so I’m sorry about that.”
“It was an answer to a question where I was being sarcastic and ironic and it has followed me around…” It hasn’t even been two months since that interview was published! He makes it sound like people have been calling him stank-ass for years! As for the sarcasm and irony…? Maybe there was a tone in his VF interview which was lost in translation to print, but again… Jake comes across (to me) like a pretty humorless guy. It doesn’t read as sarcasm. It doesn’t read as “ironic.” It reads like a guy living inside his own stinky, dirty ass. Why would it have been so hard for him to be like “yeah, that sounded weird and I’m sorry, I definitely bathe regularly!”
These photos are from his appearance in Venice a few weeks ago. I swear to God, when I first saw them, I thought “wow, he really does not look like he’s bathed recently.” I bet that white suit was SOILED.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Of course he did…he wants to change the narrative that he’s not Pigpen.
Gawd the dorkier he is, the uglier his khaki suits, the more I want to hit it.
Well, all I can say is that I too would just ramble weird stuff if someone seriously asked me what was revelatory about my shower ritual. That seems valid to me. And he looks perfectly clean in those pics? Just tired and wearing too much makeup?
Yes, it started with the loofah rambling…
I think it’s much ado about nothing. If he really did have hygiene issues, wouldn’t we be hearing about it from his contacts in the industry? In the pics he does look tired and perhaps a bit sweaty but not unclean.
I’m too old to say what I would do with him, but I bet if I asked by fortysomething niece, she’s say she would hit it.
I still 100% would.
Yeah, he’s still hot. I am ashamed to say.
Sure Jake we believe you lol
Can’t wait for the 10 minute All Too Well.
I don’t know where the opinion that he doesn’t joke in interviews came from because he’s rarely serious in the video interviews I’ve seen on youtube. Check out the ones with Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman or on any talk show. His humour can be strange and hard to get sometimes but my impression of him is that he doesn’t like interviews and deals with it with sarcasm and dad jokes.
Exactly my impression too! Him and Ellen (I know, I know) had fantastic chemistry, and he was a regular on her show. I think he’s really funny!
He looks completely fine in these photos, he actually looks clean and f*&?%$” hot to me!
Perhaps I’m in the minority but he looks sloppy and sweaty here. And I totally won’t.
If Jake was being interviewed to promote his work with Prada, as the face of a men’s cologne, why “joke” (ha-ha) about not bathing. That can’t be very professional or in the interest of your sponsor who is paying you to increase sales. I think he accidentally told the truth about himself, just like his loofah contemplations, then heard about Ashton Kutcher being heckled and didn’t want that to happen to him. So, Jake’s backtracking, and hopefully bathing more often – which is fine.
He’s always joking around in interviews I’ve seen, especially on talk shows, so I’m not sure where the idea of him being incapable or unwilling to have made a silly comment or joke comes from. He is a Mr. Serious Actor who seems intense about his work, but he definitely seems like a guy with a major goofball side.
I will say that in Europe we bathe less than US Americans. I have American friends who take several showers a day. From my experience once a day it’s enough and sometimes just washing the stinky parts. My skin looks and feel so much better since I stopped doing it obsessively. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. That’s to say I don’t blame Jake even if he was telling the truth 😀
He looks pretty damn delicious to me. Kind of think Kaiser just really dislikes him. What’s that saying? If you don’t like someone, the way they hold their fork will make you crazy… but if you do like someone, they can dump their whole plate in your lap and you won’t mind. 😉