Jake Gyllenhaal Overcomes His Fear of Spicy Wings in Existential ‘Hot Ones’ Triumph

Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t want to waste any more time. Closing out the latest season of Hot Ones, the actor consumed a row of increasingly spicy wings while answering questions about his career — but he also revealed the existential reason why it took him so long to get on the show in the first place.

“In my life, at the age I’m at, I was like, if there’s something that I’m afraid of, and I’m thinking about why I’m afraid of it, a lot of times I want to go try it,” he explained. “And you guys have actually asked me a few times to do it and I will admit here that I’ve probably been a little bit afraid to do it. I’m at a different point in my life where I’m just like, you know what? Let’s go.”

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Even at the end of the show, when host Sean Evans usually prompts his triumphant guests to plug their latest project, Gyllenhaal didn’t mention his upcoming film The Covenant or anything else he has coming up. “I have literally nothing going on,” he tells the camera. “I have no friends. Does anybody want to hang out?”

As he revealed earlier in the conversation — which featured discussions about The Covenant and his experience undergoing altitude training with Josh Brolin for End of Watch — Gyllenhaal cared less about whether the movies he makes are considered his best, putting more weight on how much he was able to open up during them.

“I believe the best stuff is when we’re most vulnerable,” he explained. “I’ve experienced that very rarely where I trust somebody so much. They can literally take me anywhere and I’ll go and I open up to them. And the weird part of that is sometimes they’re not always the best movies I’ve made. So it’s a mystery.”

But once he has opened up to someone, Gyllenhaal can be a little too trusting at times. “Is this, like, made out of the ashes of your past guests?” the actor asked Evans, wondering just how sinister the final sauce truly is. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see any of them after these interviews.” Still, he took the risk to overcome his fear — and he didn’t even need his milk to wash it all down.

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