It may have taken all too long, but Jake Gyllenhaal is finally commenting on “All Too Well” — and with some subtly pointed questions.
The Oscar nominee, 41, has long been considered the subject of Taylor Swift’s breakup track since 2012, when it first appeared on her “Red” album. But the internet’s furor over Gyllenhaal’s alleged role in the demise of their short-lived 2010s relationship reached a fever pitch late last year when the 32-year-old Grammy winner released the re-recorded, “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and with it, a 10-minute incarnation of the song — as well as an explicit and extended version.
“It has nothing to do with me,” Gyllenhaal told Esquire in a new interview, published Thursday, marking his first-ever public remarks on the red hot sensation.
“It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that,” explained the “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “The Guilty” star.
Gyllenhaal was slightly more vague about his decision to turn off comments on his Instagram in the wake of the re-release — as Swifties descended upon the comments sections of his sister, fellow Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal, and godmother Jamie Lee Curtis.
“At some point, I think it’s important when supporters get unruly that we feel a responsibility to have them be civil and not allow for cyberbullying in one’s name,” Gyllenhaal told the magazine.
The “Brokeback Mountain” actor went on to say that issue “begs for a deeper philosophical question,” about people in general and “how we can — or should, even — take responsibility for what we put into the world, our contributions into the world. How do we provoke a conversation? We see that in politics. There’s anger and divisiveness, and it’s literally life-threatening in the extreme.”
While Gyllenhaal, who hasn’t listened to the album, said he hadn’t personally been mortally threatened of late but he wonders if “anger and divisiveness” are the future.
“Or can we be empowered and empower others while simultaneously putting empathy and civility into the dominant conversation?” he asked.
Swift, for her part, has never confirmed nor denied that the song is about Gyllenhaal. Similarly, she hasn’t steered obsessive fans away from pouncing on him.
The extended version of the song calls out the heartbreaker for ending things over the lovers’ age gap — only to conclude, “‘I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age.'”
Gyllenhaal and Swift dated for three months toward the end of 2010, when Gyllenhaal was 30 and the singer 21. He’s been in a “truly wonderful” relationship with 25-year-old French model Jeanne Cadieu, since the latter half of 2018.
