Ten years after Jake Gyllenhaal starred in the landmark Brokeback Mountain — and almost eight years after the death of co-star Heath Ledger — the actor said he had no qualms about taking the role when it came his way.
“It’s one of the most beautiful scripts I’ve ever read, and it was Ang Lee, and at the time Heath [Ledger] was a friend of mine — before we even shot the movie — and always sort of alluring to me,” Gyllenhaal recalled.
“Heath was always somebody who I admired,” he continued. “He was way beyond his years as a human, in a way. I wasn’t quite sure where he came from. I mean, I know he’s from Perth, but I wasn’t really quite sure where he came from, and I think that’s the feeling most people got when they were around him and why he was so extraordinary. And when that opportunity came, I was a young actor. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’
I know a lot has been made of the choice to do it, but it just didn’t seem like something that was scary to me. You know, it was binding, because sometimes a lot of that character is very specifically the more overtly gay character of the two. The one who’s struggling with it less. And I didn’t really realize that. And that was an interesting journey for me, giving into that idea. Being the one who tries to push the relationship.”
Gyllenhaal noted that one of the things that separated him and Ledger was that the former had little experience with animals, which he felt he needed to have for the role. “It wasn’t a connection that I had that was just in me,” he said. “Heath, you know, would walk up to a horse and could like silence the horse. Just literally he’d be like, ‘Shh. Shh.’ And then he’d get on the horse. I’d be like, ‘I’m going to get on you.’ They’d be like, ‘F— off!’ I didn’t really have that style.’ ”
The actor took part in THR’s ongoing interview series The Hollywood Masters, which took place Nov. 18 at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV.
Asked if there will come a time when stars can openly be gay, he said: “I wish I had that answer. I think it is changing. And it’s pretty amazing how it’s changing. And one of the things that I’m so proud of [about] that movie, was to see, within the past basically 10 years, how much has changed. When the Supreme Court [issued a ruling] just a little while ago, I felt like we had been part, a little part and parcel of that movement. I was proud, you know? To me that’s really a pretty incredible moment. We had to wait a little while for it. But when will it be OK for an actor to be gay? I mean, it’s OK now.”
