Gillian Jacobs Pierced Her Ears for the First Time on Live TV, and We Can’t Look Away

At 35 years old, Gillian Jacobs surprised audiences when she revealed that she had never had her ears—or any body part, for that matter—pierced. So, instead of heading to her local Claire’s for quick hole-punch, the “LOVE” actress decided to pierce her ears for the first time on live television—with millions of people watching.

On Friday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Jacobs, after years of fear and backing out, pierced both of her ears. Jacobs explained that she was inspired by her character, Harper, in Netflix’s upcoming film “Ibiza,” who starts to embrace the adventure in her life after going on a trip. “I do not have my ears pierced. I have never had my ears pierced. I’ve never had anything pierced,” Jacobs said. “My character in the film goes on this trip where she really starts to embrace adventure and does things she’s afraid to do. And I thought, ‘I’m terrified of having my ears pierced. I will never do it unless I do it live on television.'”

Source: Instagram

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But that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t absolutely. Jacobs, who was sweating and tearing up during the interview, revealed that she told her publicist to tell Jimmy Kimmel that she wanted to pierce her ears on live TV, so that she wouldn’t be able to back out. “I’m a coward. I thought, ‘I’m going to tell my publicist. They’ll tell Jimmy. And then I’ll have do it,'” Jacobs said. “I mean, my heart is racing right now. Oh my god. I’m so scared. On the drive here, my armpits started sweating. I’m so shocked that I’m even upright. But I’m going to do it.”

After revealing that he couldn’t pierce Jacobs’s ears himself because of legal issues, Kimmel welcomed a pediatrician, who sanitized Jacobs’s ears and pierced them with stud gun. Though Jacobs yelped a loud “OW!,” when the doctor inserted the stud, she looked happy that it was over and done with. When the doctor pierced her second ear, tears started forming in her eyes as she raised her arms in the air in celebration.

Source: Instagram

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“I’m mainly scared of this because I saw Kyle Richards’ daughter get her ears pierced on ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And she started screaming and crying, and then I thought, ‘Maybe it’s not worth doing,’” Jacobs said after she had her first ear pierced.

Jacobs’s video inspired Sarah Hyland to reveal on Twitter that she also never had her ears pierced. In a retweet of Jacobs’s interview, Hyland tweeted at Kimmel, volunteering herself for the next live-TV ear piercing.

https://twitter.com/Sarah_Hyland/status/997947072484540416

If Hyland’s live-TV piercing becomes a thing, we hope it’s not for a while because Jacobs’s piercing was definitely intense. (That being said, we can’t stop watching.)