Jake Gyllenhaal, it seems, is neither here nor there. Wearing a black turtleneck in a stark white room, he looks like a Kubrickian technocrat beamed in from a parallel civilization. “We took a long trip to Mars. This is from Mars,” he reports back to Earth, with a word of assurance. “We brought plenty of water, so it's okay.”

Gyllenhaal the Voyager slots into the actor’s wheelhouse rather comfortably, given a range that has included crime-scene sociopath, lovestruck cowboy, and Spider-Man supervillain. His latest mission, though, doesn’t take him through mountains or the Marvel universe (or city blocks, as is the case with his real-life New York whereabouts). It’s by sea: where the harrowing meets the majestic, the water’s edge giving way to a looming red planet.

That is what Gyllenhaal the Fragrance Face encounters in the campaign film for Prada’s Luna Rossa Ocean, directed by Johan Renck (Chernobyl). It’s the newest scent inspired by the Italian sailing team, Luna Rossa, owned by the Prada Group chief executive officer Patrizio Bertelli. If the fragrance itself conveys a plush sense of mystery—notes of iris and bergamot and vetiver that would seem at home on that black sweater—the mood is charged. “It’s about interacting with the forces of nature and how they're overpowering,” Gyllenhaal says of his green-screen journey through the ocean blue. “We can harness them, but they will win in the end.”

Fragrance ads, even those starring one lone man, always seem to have a kind of romance at the core. There is the man-plus-beast phenomenon that recently took the internet by storm. Here, Gyllenhaal becomes one with the boat, which he calls it “beautiful” and “gorgeous” in a single wooing breath. It’s enough of an excuse to talk about all things aquatic, from lox orders and bathing rituals to his favorite boating movie of all time.

Vanity Fair: We’ve come to expect fragrances from fashion houses; less often are they tied to pro sailing teams. How does that framing shift the usual campaign narrative—less sex, more nautical vibes?

Jake Gyllenhaal: This story was interesting to me particularly because there are these standard cliches with which masculinity and men are kind of portrayed in this space. I like the idea of a sailor and an adventurer. Obviously it’s not venturing far from that idea, but it is about interacting with the forces of nature and how they’re overpowering. We can harness them, but they will win in the end. There’s something, to me, about being active—just being totally selfish. I love being active in anything that I’m doing. Rule number one as an actor is if you’re not in a scene, you can’t get in it, eat a bag of chips and say your lines. And it works! It makes for real behavior.

So the presentation of what Prada wanted to do, and what Johan wanted to do, was [let’s] put you on a boat, this beautiful boat and this expression of technology and artistry. It is really gorgeous, this boat, and it actually sails. It’s not just some idea of adventure. It’s for real—even though there's a fantasy part of it. I think the fragrance is about people who want adventure and want to be active, not only externally but also within themselves.

That’s a refreshing change of pace from the peak pandemic months, which had so much static energy. It’s like you were saying about the bag of chips: a shortcut to some other means of expression.

Well, the bag of chips, I think, has been our go-to over the past year and a half, most likely for everybody. [laughs] There’s something nice—even now, even though we are interacting virtually—about people coming out into the world. I’ve heard from lots of people in this time that they've engaged with nature in a whole new way. It’s so important for us because, in the time before this time, the culture of convenience was winning. I don't think it will lose out, but I do think we’ve had a hint of perspective on our connection to nature. I was thinking the other day, there are just more birds—or, at least, I hear them.

Often in such campaigns the character you play might reflect some version of yourself. This guy in the Prada windbreaker on the red boat—what do you share with him?

Oh, it’s definitely wish fulfillment. There’s no reason to be an actor if you don’t have that, I think. The reason why it was so enticing when I knew Johan was doing it was because he doesn’t suffer fools and he doesn’t really like bullshit. He’s just worked with such incredible talent that he knows when someone's being real. I could trust that, even in this big, dramatic world, he was going to find a behavior that felt honest.

I do sail, but I could not sail that to save my life! But—I’ll share a secret, and this is my only reason to really do all of this—I really hope I can sail on that boat at some point. I’ll probably never be able to for insurance reasons or something. Not because of me, because of the boat! You don't want to mess up the boat.

What is in your canon of favorite boat scenes in film, whether kitsch or menacing or poetic?

This is the best question. There’s a movie with Bobcat Goldthwait [called] One Crazy Summer. So there’s a character and he’s a real jerk. He’s a super rich, jerky guy, and he has a Ferrari. They’re in a boat race. Do you remember?

No, I have to watch it.

How have you not seen One Crazy Summer? It has perhaps the best opening ever. He’s racing the obnoxious guy and they steal his Ferrari. At the very end, you realize that they’ve used the engine of this guy’s Ferrari to win the boat race. It pulls out of the back and has his license plate, and it’s the Ferrari but it’s a boat. Anyway, it’s a great boat movie. I highly recommend it. See! Now I’ve got your attention.

I feel like New Yorkers forget that this is a water town. What are your defining water experiences here? Do you run along the river? Have you had a hilariously bad date on a ferry? What is your version of aquatic New York?

Well, mostly it’s through showering. It’s mostly a bathing interaction. This is not actual water, like the Hudson, but there was that great spa, Aire, that has water underground. I went there a couple of times. What other water interactions have I had? I’m a pier kind of guy. I enjoy the piers. But I haven’t spent a lot of time, admittedly, on the Hudson itself. Maybe farther [upstate], but not here. Sorry to disappoint.

Is there anything revelatory about your shower ritual?

I always am baffled that loofahs come from nature. They feel like they’ve been made in a factory but, in fact, it’s just not true. Since I was young, it’s amazed me. More and more I find bathing to be less necessary, at times. I do believe, because Elvis Costello is wonderful, that good manners and bad breath get you nowhere. So I do that. But I do also think that there’s a whole world of not bathing that is also really helpful for skin maintenance, and we naturally clean ourselves.

You’ve collaborated with Russ & Daughters a couple of times. What is the most rewarding part about being a hype man for an appetizing shop?

You would think it would be free lox, but they don’t pull any punches. You’ve got to pay for that no matter what. It’s claiming a connection with maybe one of the coolest, most established spots in New York City, which I think is priceless.

They are so caring, and they’re such wonderful business people, both Niki [Russ Federman] and Josh [Russ Tupper], who run Russ & Daughters at this point. They are always about giving back; they have their feet on the ground, and they’re hardcore. I just love them as people. Outside of all of the things that we’ve done together, which I’m so proud of, I just enjoy them.

What’s your to-go order if you’re living large or taking over a load of things to Maggie’s house?

Obviously there’s nova—thinly sliced nova. The dark chocolate pecan turtles are a thing. Some of their licorice. I do prefer homemade latkes, but I’ll get some. A little bit of caviar, too, because my sister would probably admit that she’s a sucker for that. Chocolate babka is part of the package. I’m a fan of whipped cream cheese, and unfortunately that’s not available at Russ & Daughters. So I’ve got to go off the beaten track for that.

You play a bank robber in the upcoming Michael Bay heist movie, Ambulance. How was it slipping into that role after this year? Is there a kind of catharsis in putting ambulances back in the place of an action movie?

I’ve done two now. I did a film before that and then I did [Ambulance]. The first one that we did is a very intimate movie, but it was in a more scary time. We filmed in Los Angeles when it felt like we were really peaking in terms of cases. It was full of its own anxiety for many different reasons.

So then I got to do the movie Ambulance. I think there’s originality. The sequel to this will be called School Bus. We’re just going to get bigger and bigger and more bulky types of automobiles to race around cities—but I think we already did that movie with a big bus. [laughs]

It seems surreal that the Tony awards you’re nominated for are for plays that predated the pandemic. Do you see those two projects—Sea Wall/A Life, which you appeared in, and Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, which you helped produce—as strangely prefiguring this year? Do you want to revive them even more now?

I think really good art written by very smart people is generally prophetic, because I think it’s the job of really smart minds to tap into something that you can feel is brewing before it happens. Obviously [some of the themes] are sort of universal and they’ve been going on for a long, long time. But I think the idea of loss, the idea of isolation; all those things that Slave Play deals with [in terms] of race and all of our struggles with it, and sexuality and relationships and intimacy and gender, all of that stuff—they would still be relevant now, and I think that’s a sign of something powerful. I’m desperate to get back on the stage. Someone recently asked me, “Where do you want to travel to?” I’m like, “The stage, the theater.” I want to get back into theater as an audience member, and I want to be back onstage. It makes me feel alive, and I want to be alive again.

It is odd that there’s been such a great delay [for the Tony Awards]. But, frankly, the brilliant work of Jeremy O. Harris and that whole cast, I have this feeling that they will be duly awarded for that. It’s time for Jeremy to stop waiting. That’s my feeling. But the Tony Awards are cool, no matter what, and it’s an honor. So I’d take it if it was seven years from now or seven years ago.

What stories are you itching to tell?

I don’t know. I don’t necessarily work like that. I’ve never really worked like that. In fact, I’m more of the philosophy that the target draws forth the arrow, and if you listen clearly enough the things will reveal themselves. There are stories that are in early development that I know I want to tell, and we’re in process of doing that. But they never came from something that I wanted to do. It’s a much more strange, ephemeral, abstract process for me. Some actors will be like, “I’ve always wanted to play this part.” I love interpreting and sometimes those things just come and you go like, “Yes. That’s what I’m looking for.” I have no idea what that will be.

And I’ll be looking for Russ & Daughters, thank you.

They do a herring party! You’ve got to get to the herring party. It’s disgusting and it’s great.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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