Jake Gyllenhaal's Most Controversial Moments

Whether he's playing the title character in "Donnie Darko" or the villain Mysterio in "Spider-Man: Far From Home," fans love Jake Gyllenhaal. His star power is massive, as illustrated by an April 2024 Instagram post promoting Amazon's remake of the Patrick Swayze classic "Road House," which was captioned, "'Road House' has become Amazon MGM Studios' most-watched produced film debut ever on a worldwide basis" and garnered lots of complimentary comments for Gyllenhaal. His work is so wide-ranging that he even narrated an audio version of the classic novel "The Great Gatsby" in 2013.

While the Academy Award-nominated actor is best known for his movies, his personal life has also captivated the public. The "Brokeback Mountain" star has been romantically linked with several women including Taylor Swift, Kirsten Dunst, and Natalie Portman, but in June 2024, he explained to People that he's got a great relationship with French model Jeanne Cadieu. "I'm in a relationship that is full of love and support. I feel so at ease," he said.

All in all, Gyllenhaal seems to enjoy his life in the limelight — and sometimes it gets a bit crazy. Remarking to the Hollywood Reporter in June 2024 that great actors are committed to their roles, he stated, "To deliver a line that goes into a trailer, with the right gusto and belief, and even with the absurdity of it, it's a mastery." How appropriate — absurdity is a word that can also be applied to the actor himself, whose strange behavior has created some controversial moments over the years.

Jake Gyllenhaal has turned some heads over the years with his unusual talk-show comments. The actor appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2014 to promote his film, "Nightcrawler," mentioning that he did a lot of running to get into shape. When Letterman asked what his jogging distance might be, the actor responded in a deadpan manner, "Short, like maybe a, like 150 miles a day, something like that."

In December 2007, Gyllenhaal appeared on Conan O'Brien's now-defunct show "Conan," and the host pointed out the actor's beard. "I'm trying to go for that kind of like, you know, 'people think I smell bad when they watch me on TV but actually I smell good' kind of look." To which O'Brien said it could make him look like he doesn't bathe often. "Do you wanna smell it?" Gyllenhaal asked. After taking a sniff, deeming it pleasant, he reminded everyone, "It's how we look, not who we are." The audience laughed and a straight-faced Gyllenhaal added, "It's true." 

He would again appear on "Conan" in 2016 to promote the film "Nocturnal Animals," where he shared his secret to acting: "I learned to just grow a beard." In a 2023 clip of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," the host also brought up the actor's facial hair. "Yes, I do. I have a beard," Gyllenhaal said. "But fear not, it is not a sadness beard. It's just a regular beard ... Yeah, I'm a very serious actor. So I have a beard."

In 2019, Jake Gyllenhaal appeared in a bizarre Netflix movie called "John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch." Headlined by comedian John Mulaney — who previously got in trouble of his own over an SNL joke — it's a spoof of kids' shows with comedy sketches, songs, and discussions about existential fears. Gyllenhaal plays Mr. Music, who attempts to teach the kids how to make music without a musical instrument in one sketch, but he fails at all his attempts to make any sounds.

After trying to make music by swirling a glass of Bordeaux, then accidentally breaking the wine's bottle, one kid asks, "Is Mr. Music okay?" Mulaney responds, "No, Mr. Music's not okay. He's having a lot of trouble." The entire sketch is hilarious as the children are suitably unimpressed by Mr. Music's presentation, and it illustrates Gyllenhaal's wacky side.

On the "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" in February 2020, Mulaney recalled, "I remember Netflix was like, 'Who do you want for this?' And I was like, 'Ideally, Harry Belafonte in 1961.' And they were like, 'Please work with us.'" He explained that he and others producing the show conferred on who to get to play Mr. Music. "Jake Gyllenhaal would be the best Mr. Music, because we'd seen this movie 'Okja' that he did on Netflix," Mulaney said. Remembering that performance as well as a few others, they were thinking, "That guy's nuts!" And history was made.

In an August 2021 interview with Vanity Fair, Gyllenhaal discussed an ad campaign he made for Prada that involved being on a boat, so the topic morphed into a conversation about his relationship with water, particularly his interactions with New York's Hudson River. "I'm a pier kind of guy. I enjoy the piers," he said, adding, "But I haven't spent a lot of time, admittedly, on the Hudson itself. Maybe farther [upstate], but not here. Sorry to disappoint."

His showering routine was brought up, and he hilariously explained that he finds loofahs confounding because they're not actually manufactured — they grow in nature. "More and more I find bathing to be less necessary, at times," he said. Research has shown that too much showering or bathing can disrupt the microbiome on peoples' skin, throwing its natural oils out of balance. Gyllenhaal seemed to be referring to this when he continued, "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."

According to BuzzFeed, fans were in a tizzy over those remarks, and during a press junket for his film "The Guilty" in September 2021, he clarified his statement: "I don't know what it was. I answered a question where I was being sarcastic and ironic, and it's followed me around ... I showered before I came here."

Jake Gyllenhaal isn't above taking a few jesting shots at a co-star. When promoting "Spider-Man: Far From Home" in June 2019, Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal appeared in an IGN video to address fan questions. Holland read one of them which said, "I wanna see Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Benedict Cabbagepatch," which was a reference to actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who almost starred in "True Blood" but garnered great fame as Marvel's Dr. Strange, who also appeared in the film. Gyllenhaal took the opportunity to hilariously answer the question. 

"We don't talk enough about Cabbage Patch dolls, or Garbage Pail Kids anymore," he said, referring to the parody characters. He then spun quite a yarn, explaining that Benedict Cabbage Patch's "great-grandfather started Cabbage Patch dolls, and they were a big thing in the 90s. That's how Benedict got his start in the business." He further explained that the great-grandfather set Cabbage Patch up in a London apartment where he began auditioning and his career took off, with Holland shaking his head in disbelief.

He finished with, "So, the truth of the matter is, without Cabbage Patch Kids, Benedict Cabbage Patch wouldn't have a career and you wouldn't have Dr. Strangé," pronouncing that last name with a French accent. He then hilariously asked Holland if he had been speaking out loud, or just thinking about Benedict Cabbage Patch.

In March 2020, French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain completed a script called "Suddenly," an adaptation of Isabelle Autissier's novel "Suddenly Alone." The story concerns a couple that gets stranded on a deserted island. Jake Gyllenhaal got involved and assured Bidegain that he loved it, and ended up co-producing the movie, according to Technikart.

During production, things got bizarre when the actor demanded the car they were to provide for him be "neither red nor white." While the theme of the film was supposed to be about human love, Bidengain alleged that Gyllenhall played a video of a speech by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg while he cried. The screenwriter said the actor wanted to change the theme to "the love of nature. He declares that everything must be rewritten, all declarations of love must be declarations to nature."

In one scene involving Gyllenhaal's character and his on-screen wife, played by Vanessa Kirby, Bidegain explained, "It was supposed to be a very moving love scene, but the two actors read their dialogues ironically, like the cartoon character Pépé [Le Pew, from 'Looney Tunes']." The writer also described other bizarre incidents, including Gyllenhaal wanting to "slap a fish." Eventually, Bidengain decided to abort the project. A representative for the film's financier Studiocanal told the AV Club in January 2024 that while there were creative differences, they continue having "a very strong creative relationship" with Bidegain and Gyllenhaal. Clearly, the actor likes to mess with people!