Why Jake Gyllenhaal Gifted Owen Cooper a Duck Ahead of Emmys 2025

By Olivia Evans Sep 14, 2025 9:46 PM

| Updated 1 minute ago

Indeed, Owen has already been quite lucky. The 15-year-old is nominated alongside Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story’s Javier Bardem, Dying for Sex’s Rob Delaney, his Adolescence costar Ashley Walters as well as Jake’s Presumed Innocent costars Bill Camp and Peter Sarsgaard for Outstanding Supporting Actor, making him the youngest nominee in the history of the category. (See here for every Emmys 2025 winner so far.)

However, his meeting with Jake is certainly icing on the cake for the budding star. Owen has previously emphasized just how big of a role model he finds the Road House alum. After all, he shared during a Sept. 12 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he was looking forward to the Emmys the most to “chew Jake Gyllenhaal’s ear off all night.”

“He’s my number one,” Owen effused during the appearance. “If I’m sat next to him, he’s not going to have a good night. I’m literally just going to be talking to him the whole night.”

The teenager went on to list Jarhead, Donnie Darko and Prisoners as some of his favorite performances by Jake, admitting, “I could go on forever talking about him, honestly."

And whether Jake had seen Owen's performance in Adolescence?

"Probably not," Owen joked to host Jimmy Kimmel, "but I don’t care.”

To see what more TV stars were up to ahead of their big night, keep reading...