So there is a wonderfully complicated and high-stakes game we love to play as Taylor Swift fans: “Who is she talking about in this song?” Swift has done a pretty good job not commenting on who the songs she’s writing are about, mainly because some of her relationships have been a bit more high-profile than others, but one thing we all collectively agreed on is that the song “All Too Well,” off her album Red, was about Jake Gyllenhaal.
Now, obviously, we had no stone-cold proof, but it was seemingly obviously about the Mysterio actor. The problem is that the conversation was refueled by Taylor Swift releasing the “Taylor’s Version” rendition of “All Too Well”—a ten-minute version of the song, one that included life-destroying lyrics like “And I was never good at tellin’ jokes, but the punch line goes, ‘I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age.'” So … there’s been an increasing shift in how people view Gyllenhaal yet again, and it’s something that the actor has talked about.
In the past, he hasn’t mentioned the song, and now this time, he has shut off the comments on his Instagram posts. But in a new interview, he talked a bit about the song and his current relationship with it.
Jake Gyllenhaal and “All Too Well”
“It has nothing to do with me. It’s about her relationship with her fans,” Gyllenhaal said to said to Esquire in a new interview. “It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.”
But he also pointed out that he has been getting cyberbullied on his social media accounts because of the ten-minute version of the song. Part of it is sadly how the culture works with celebrities and was made only that much worse with the song coming back up in conversation, but he also brought up taking responsibility for what we “put into the world.”
“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,” he noted. “That begs for a deeper philosophical question. Not about any individual, per se, but a conversation that allows us to examine how we can—or should, even—take responsibility for what we put into the world, our contributions into the world.”
He also let the world know that he has not listened to the ten-minute version of “All Too Well.” To be fair, I understand both sides of this. I don’t think anyone should bully him but I also don’t think Swift should be limited in what she shares, especially since she hasn’t said the song was about Gyllenhaal. So, that is not on her, and if he did think she said something, maybe something just got lost in translation, or maybe we’re asking for too much. (See what I did there?)
But Gyllenhaal is, seemingly, having a fine time otherwise. “My life is wonderful,” he told Esquire. “I have a relationship that is truly wonderful, and I have a family I love so much. And this whole period of time has made me realize that.”
The moral here is: Jake Gyllenhaal hasn’t listened to the ten-minute version of “All Too Well” but also maybe don’t cyberbully Bubble Boy in the name of Taylor Swift.
(image: Rich Fury/Getty Images for LACMA)
