Jake Gyllenhaal’s legal blindness fuels Taylor Swift fans’ speculation, all too well

Thankfully, he hasn’t mentioned T-ball or scarves recently.

A recent profile of Jake Gyllenhaal revealed that he’s legally blind, and online fans found a way to connect it directly to none other than one of his most famous exes, Taylor Swift.

THR’s interview with the Nightcrawler star opens with a description of the actor putting on his glasses, which have thick lenses to account for his 20/1250 vision. “I like to think it’s advantageous,” Gyllenhaal told the outlet. “I’ve never known anything else. When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, it’s a place where I can be with myself.”

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Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Velvet Buzzsaw,’ Taylor Swift.CLAUDETTE BARIUS/NETFLIX; JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC

The article also notes that Gyllenhaal occasionally uses his subpar eyesight — which is significantly less clear than 20/200, the cutoff for legal blindness — to enhance his performances, stating that he removed his contacts while filming an emotional scene in Southpaw to make his character focus on listening more intently.

Swifties recognized that Gyllenhaal’s ocular condition aligns with details in one of her most beloved songs: “All Too Well” from 2012’s Red. Swifties have persistently hypothesized that the 5-minute track, which received a 10-minute extended “Taylor’s Version” re-recording that released in 2021, is about the brief three-month romance between the singer and Gyllenhaal.

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The second verse of “All Too Well” describes the narrator visiting her partner’s parents’ home, where she talks with his mother and looks at old family pictures. “Photo album on the counter / Your cheeks were turning red / You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-size bed,” Swift says in the song.

Jake Gyllenhaal appears to be referencing Taylor Swift in new W Magazine photo

Taylor Swift performing at an Eras Tour stop in Stockholm, Sweden.MICHAEL CAMPANELLA/TAS24/GETTY

The revelation that Gyllenhaal has worn glasses since he was six years old, then, has added fuel to Swifties’ speculative fire, especially since THR noted that he declined to discuss the singer during the interview. Marie Claire also noted that Swift’s fans swarmed a now-deleted photo of Gyllenhaal as a child wearing glasses on his Instagram account.

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Gyllenhaal responded to the “All Too Well” hubbub in a 2022 interview with Esquire, in which he said, “It has nothing to do with me. It’s about her relationship with her fans…It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.” He also said he hadn’t listened to the new version of Red in that same interview.