One more reason to love Jake Gyllenhaal: He recites touching lines of an e.e. cummings poem to his darling 4-year-old daughter.
Well, it’s an advertising scenario, for Calvin Klein’s Eternity, and that’s not actually his kid, but it’s sweet anyway. Especially if you’re a fan, it’s easy to get swept up in the emotion of the spot and the fact that Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Nocturnal Animals) is so natural and convincing in playing a smitten young father (without the dad bod).
Shot in black-and-white by superstar director Cary Fukunaga, this is the first-ever fragrance commercial for Gyllenhaal, who was named an ambassador for the brand a few weeks ago.
A print ad released earlier this month, teasing the 60-second TV spot, put the Oscar-nominated actor with model-advocate Liya Kebede and child star Leila as a 21st century family. It highlights the brand’s “longstanding ideas of romance, love, intimacy and commitment,” according to a statement. “Today, those values continue with the focus very much on contemporary life.”
Gyllenhaal, who stars in this fall’s drama Stronger, about a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, reads snippets of cummings’ “I carry your heart with me (I carry it in)” while cuddling and playing with the preschooler, using her tiny foot as a phone at one point. Begin melting, icy hearts.
Consciously or not, Calvin Klein has tapped into a current trend of dads and daughters in ads, most of them designed to hit us right in the feels. Mission accomplished once again.
The generously bearded Gyllenhaal joins celebs like Mark Wahlberg, Margot Robbie and the cast of Moonlight in working with Calvin. His deal comes as designer Raf Simons now heads up (and shakes up) the brand.
