Jake Gyllenhaal has returned to Saturday Night Live! The 41-year-old is known for his Broadway musical talents, and didn’t hold back during the opening monologue — going as far to cover Canadian legend Celine Dion! It all started when Gyllenhaal reflected back on his hosting debut in Jan. 2007. “There I am in full drag, singing a song from Dreamgirls, to promote a movie where I played a gay cowboy,” Gyllenhaal added. “That was actually the least problematic thing in that episode, but looking back, I feel like I was a totally different person.”
Jake Gyllenhaal's monologue! pic.twitter.com/JFevHkBKXX
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 10, 2022
He when noted that it felt like “everything is suddenly coming back,” before getting into one of Celine’s most iconic hits: “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” from 1996. Even better? He had an assist on back-up with Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, and Cecily Strong — incredible.
Beyond his 2007 hosting gig and last night, he’s also appeared several other times in cameos: he returned to the show for a digital short in Sept. 2007, and for a third time on Weekend Update on April 2. Jake’s most recent appearance was just over a year ago in Feb. 2020 with host John Mulaney. The Brokeback Mountain star showed off his musical talents in the Airport Sushi Sketch as “The Guy who travels in Pajamas” — prompting belting out the tune “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
The Los Angeles native took to Instagram to share he was “excited” about hosting tonight’s SNL episode. “Here we go again… pretty darn excited about it!” he wrote on a caption of SNL‘s signature post-it note announcements, including Camila Cabello‘s name as musical guest. The appearance is advance of his upcoming project Ambulance, a new action thriller directed by Michael Bay. The film is based on a Danish film of the same name, and shot through the COVID-19 pandemic with a $40 million budget in Jake’s hometown of L.A.
In the film, Jake plays criminal Danny who is approached by his adoptive brother Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) for $231,000 to pay for a surgery for his wife. Jake’s Danny then talks his brother — who is a war veteran and officer — into planning a $32 million bank heist. Ambulance is sent for theatrical release on April 8, 2022.