Jake Gyllenhaal has clarified his comment regarding his personal hygiene, and he wants his fans to know he’s been bathing this entire time.
Conversations regarding Gyllenhaal’s bathing routine kicked off after he told Vanity Fair back in August that he finds “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,” the Spider-Man: Far From Home actor told the outlet. “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.”
A month after his eyebrow-raising comments, Jake has clarified his stance on bathing during a screening of his upcoming Netflix film The Guilty.
“I don’t know what it was,” Gyllenhaal said in response to a question from BuzzFeed. “I answered a question where I was being sarcastic and ironic, and it’s followed me around.”
“Unfortunately, I showered before I came here,” he continued. “So...I’m sorry.”
Gyllenhaal’s initial take on bathing was partially in response to a subject brought up by Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast, where he spoke with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher about whether it was actually necessary to shower every day. “You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day,” Shepard said.
“I don’t wash my body with soap every day,” Mila Kunis responded, “but I wash pits and tits and holes and soles.” Kutcher added that he washes, his “armpits” and “crotch daily, and nothing else ever.”
The dialogue sparked an internet frenzy, especially when the couple spoke on how often they bathe their kids. “When I had children I also didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t the parent that bathed my newborns—ever,” Kunis said. “Here’s the thing—if you can see the dirt on ’em, clean ’em,” Kutcher added. “Otherwise, there’s no point.”
The couple later trolled their critics by sharing a photo of them bathing their kids.
