Check out the Jake Gyllenhaal gallery

Move over Brad and step aside Keanu; Jake Gyllenhaal is on a mission to be the most heavenly gay pin-up in history. With a double whammy for the month of January, Jake can be seen in gay love story Brokeback Mountain, opposite the equally gorgeous Heath Ledger, and later this month as a hot-headed G.I. in Sam Mendes’ Jarhead, in which he keeps showing off that beauty of a chest.

Little Donnie Darko has come a long way since being scared of big brown bunnies and it’s time we got to know him better. Totty Watch anyone?

Name
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal

Vitals
Born 19 December 1980 in Los Angeles, USA.

Cowboys In The Closet
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” takes on a whole new resonance for carefree rodeo rider Jack Twist when he sets eyes on growly ranch hand Ennis del Mar in the Wyoming mountains in the film adaptation of Annie Proulx’s gay cowboy story, Brokeback Mountain.

“For me, it’s a story about how hard it is for two people to love each other,” Jake told the Evening Standard. “If you love each other, no matter what context that is – heterosexual or homosexual – it’s just fucking hard.”

We’re sure it was Jake, and Totty Watch wonders if director Ang Lee has somehow managed to tap into our daily fantasies by casting these two perfectly formed specimens as screen lovers. If gruff, tobacco-chewing Ennis can’t resist a romp in the mountains with Jack then what chance is there for mere mortals?

There’s not a soul on the planet who will now believe their partner when he tells them he’s “going fishing” and where co-star Heath Ledger was quick to dispel the obvious question of the actors’ off-screen sexuality by falling in love with his on-screen wife Michelle Williams – even producing a sprog in time for Brokeback’s publicity trail - Jake has found himself on the receiving end of bisexual rumours and it’s been suggested that Brokeback Mountain is a trailer previewing his own coming out.

“You know it’s flattering when there’s a rumour that says I’m bisexual,” he told Premiere magazine. “It means I can play more kinds of roles, I’m open to whatever people want to call me.”

Things have changed for the young actor who turned down the lead role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers because of its explicit nudity. At one point in Brokeback Mountain Jake is naked by a stream wearing only his boots with Heath just a few feet away – and this is before they indulge themselves in the love that dare not speak its name! Being a cowpoke in luurrvve obviously suits the formerly shy Jake.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the great outdoors and a bunch of sheep have got the better of ‘heterosexual’ men, but boy love wasn’t the only thing Jake got good at in the mountains. “Ultimately, the work I’m really most proud of is that I can lasso, which is much harder than it looks,” he told Advocate.

Armed And Dangerous
Far from intellectually gifted or known for their emotional capacity, the best thing about a squaddie is his body and Jake does nothing to ruin that reputation in Jarhead (released 13 January 2005). Most of the time he wears his army fatigues, which is fine by us because we’d never get tired of looking at Jake, but stuck in the desert for five months with no action of any kind he starts to get bored.

To alleviate the tedium he virtually sprains his right hand wanking over a picture of his girlfriend and when he suspects that she’s dumped him he gets very drunk during a Xmas party. In the spirit of Saint Nick he puts on two Santa Claus hats – one on his head and one on his cock.

Jake joins the Marine Corps green with naivety only to come out green with rage that he hasn’t had the chance to blow someone away before the war ended. Totty Watch doesn’t think green is a good colour on Jake. We prefer blue – the bluer the better – and if Jarhead had been a porn movie maybe it could have been called Jake Gives Head?

Because from what Jake recently told the US magazine Details he wouldn’t be too bothered if that had been the title. “I've never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don't think I would be afraid of it if it happened,” he says.

The evidence is mounting thick and fast. Two films in two weeks that both portray Jake in highly charged male dominated situations. As the Saudi Arabian heat sets temperatures to boiling point playful towel slapping in the showers with other G.I.s could easily extend to full on shagging on the sand dunes. Maybe there’s room for a ‘gay war film’ too.

Availability
“Every man goes through a period of thinking they’re attracted to another guy,” Jake recently admitted before revealing that he was once arrested for stealing a pair of Speedos. If that isn’t proof he’s ripe for turning I don’t know what is!

Give Me More
Go behind-the-scenes with Gyllenhaal at his shoot with Annie Liebovitz for the Vanity Fair March Hollywood Issue at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, California, on November 19, 2005. View the exclusive video coverage.

Want to see more? Then check out some of these lovely pics...

Read our review of the original short story short story, the film adaptation of Brokeback Mountain and our Totty Watch on  Heath Ledger.

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Is the book better than the film? Get Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx and find out. Buy it online and save some money to put towards Cowboys & Angels and Queer Cowboys: Desire in 19th Century Westerns.