Swarbrick/INFphoto.comJake Gyllenhaal is not one to kiss and tell.
So, when the Southpaw star appeared on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show Wednesday, he once again declined to discuss his short-lived romance with pop star Taylor Swift. One day earlier, when Gyllenhaal was promoting his movie on Good Morning America, the segment was introduced as Swift's "Bad Blood" played—and Stern found it quite amusing. "Were you are of that?" he asked.
"No," 34-year-old Gyllenhaal said with a laugh.
Stern explained that it became "a big deal on social media" Tuesday afternoon. "It was supposedly them trying to make… Because you dated her, it was them trying to make some sort of association there. They were up to shenanigans, weren't they?" Gyllenhaal reiterated that he was unaware of the music, saying, "First of all, I did not hear that...When I'm doing an interview when you're up at 5 a.m. and you can't really make sense of words, you're not thinking about the background music that's playing behind you."
"So they aren't they sabotaging you in a sense?" Stern asked.
"Oh, please!" Gyllenhaal said. "Good Morning America?"
"Associating you with Taylor Swift?" Stern asked.
"Would you have known it was a Taylor Swift song?" Robin Quivers asked.
"Yes, of course I would have," Gyllenhaal said.
"You are not defined by dating Taylor Swift. But they are defining you with a Taylor Swift song," Stern argued. Not wanting to add fuel to the fire, the actor joked, "There are dark things that happen on Good Morning America. That is not one of them." Stern suggested the show could have played an Eminem song, given that the rapper contributed to the Southpaw soundtrack. "I don't know, man," Gyllenhaal said. "I'm sure they have so much music on that show playing all the time. It's just one of those things."
Stern couldn't help himself, saying, "I feel—and this is me stepping in—you should have married Taylor Swift, and I'll tell you why…What a power couple!" Everyone laughed, and Gyllenhaal replied, "Oh, that's the reason?" Stern said he is "super attracted" to the "Shake It Off" singer, and Gyllenhaal admitted that she's a "beautiful girl." Had he been friends with Gyllenhaal when the actor was dating Swift, Stern would have told him she's a keeper. "Why didn't you have me on this show sooner?" Gyllenhaal asked.
"I would have said, 'Jake, this is The One.' Because to me, nothing is sexier than a woman who can play songs and write," Stern said. Quivers noted that Swift has written "a song" about Gyllenhaal, but the star feigned ignorance, asking, "Do I?" Quivers replied, "Well, that's what they say." Stern asked Gyllenhaal which song Swift had written about him (apparently he's never listened to the Red album), but the actor said, "I don't know...This is all Robin. She's looking it up right now. She's feverishly looking it up online."
During the wide-ranging interview, Stern asked, "Will you ever get married?"
"Oh, I hope so," Gyllenhaal said.
Asked what's holding him back, Gyllenhaal replied, "I think it's hard for everybody, but I also think at some point, you just decide to grow up, you know?" Later, the actor said, "If you find the right person...I believe in monogamy. I believe when you meet somebody right it will be right and it will stay that way."
"Are you in love right now?" Stern asked.
"No," Gyllenhaal said.
"Are you upset about that?" Stern asked.
"Yeah. I love love, man," Gyllenhaal said. "Are you kidding me?"
"How many times in your life have you really been in love—really in love?" Stern asked.
"Three times," Gyllenhaal said without naming names. "Twice."
"Who were they?" Quivers asked. Gyllenhaal didn't answer, but it's not hard to read between the lines. After all, the actor dated Kirsten Dunst from 2002 to 2004 and Reese Witherspoon from 2007 to 2009.
"Each time you were in love, something held you back from committing and get married," Stern noted.
"Yeah," Gyllenhaal admitted. "Me."
"It was you?" Stern asked.
"Yeah. It was me, man," Gyllenhaal said. "I think I probably just got scared."