Jake Gyllenhaal covers the latest issue of the Hollywood Reporter, mostly to promote Road House (on Prime) and the upcoming Presumed Innocent miniseries (on AppleTV+). If I’m being honest, I’ll f–k with Presumed Innocent. I know Jake is canceled for a lot of people and I’m not even any kind of Jake fan, but the series looks really good and I love sexy legal dramas like that. As for this interview, it feels like Jake is always in a constant state of trying to show people that he’s not an intense, workaholic a–hole, even when all of his costars quoted in this piece are like “no, he’s very intense and the man is consumed with work.” Some highlights from THR:

He’s legally blind?? Gyllenhaal, 43, has been wearing intensive corrective lenses since he was about 6. Born with a lazy eye that naturally resolved, he’s still legally blind. “I like to think it’s advantageous. I’ve never known anything else. When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, it’s a place where I can be with myself.”

He had fun working on ‘Road House’: “There are movies I’ve made that people have said to me, ‘Man, intense. That was great. It was tough.’ And there have been many different times where I’m like, ‘Wait, what’s it like to make a movie and be like, ‘That was just fun?’ Road House was definitely that.”

He’s obsessed with 1991’s Point Break, which he has seen hundreds of times. To him, Patrick Swayze’s and Keanu Reeves’ performances in the surf-cop action movie reflect the joyful commitment of true artists. “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. There’s that thing, the camera’s pushing in and I’m always like, ‘Oh wow, this is when you see Bruce Willis do the line, the thing. And now I’m doing the thing. Like, oh God.’ ” In Road House, for instance, before his character’s first time knocking out a rowdy bar customer, he asks genially, “Before we start, do you have insurance? Like, your coverage good? Do you have dental?” It’s the kind of action-comedy moment Gyllenhaal grew up watching and only now truly appreciates as craft. “It requires this ease, but focus. I’m in awe of people who can do it.”

His relationship with his sister Maggie: “I worshiped her, and she was like, ‘Go away.’ My sister has always been brilliant. What it did was present something to me that I inevitably would always be chasing. She takes a step and does something and I’m like, ‘Whoa, holy s–t. All right, I’m going to try this.’ ”

Next up is Othello: “It is learning another language. I have a bit of dyslexia, too, particularly within the articles of things — like, I’ll reverse them. Many people say, ‘But you learn so fast.’ And I’m like, ‘I drill these things.’ “

He’s been with Jeanne Cadieu since 2018. Asked when they’re going to get married, Gyllenhaal says, playfully, “I’m supposed to tell The Hollywood Reporter that? I’m not going to give you timing,” but continues, “I think we all get into that space of work, work, work, and for a long time my career took precedence, but I’m at a point in my life where I realize that family really is the only thing that matters to me.”

He declined to discuss Taylor Swift: It makes sense that Gyllenhaal is a little guarded about his personal life when you consider that the three-month relationship he had with Taylor Swift still triggers online fan screeds some 14 years later thanks to the signature breakup song “All Too Well” that the pop star wrote about him. Swift is one subject Gyllenhaal declines to discuss — in 2022, when she released a longer version of the 2012 song, he turned off his Instagram comments. “It has nothing to do with me,” he told Esquire at the time. “It’s about her relationship with her fans. It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.”

[From THR]

There’s also a lot of stuff about how much Jake loves to cook and bake and how he fan-boys over certain chefs and bakers, which I believe. I bet baking really appeals to his personality. I’m not saying that in a shady way, I’m just saying “that makes sense.” I also appreciate that he declined to discuss Taylor Swift – like, he really doesn’t need to give that issue any more air, and if he breathed one word about Taylor, the Swifties would climb up his ass. Also: I love the original Point Break too, and Swayze and Reeves’ performances are really underrated. I’ve also seen that hundreds of times. That’s Lori Petty’s best role too, she’s so sexy in that (they all are).

Photos courtesy of Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Ottavia Da Re /Agenzia Sintesi/Avalon, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon, cover courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.