April 8, 2020
While it remains a singular achievement in Hollywood history – a hugely successful romantic drama about the love of two men – "Brokeback Mountain" also experienced "an endless cycle of homophobic ridicule" that helped brand it "the gay cowboy movie,"
"But one person who never wavered in his support of the film and its thematic importance was its late star Heath Ledger," writes Bradley. "The late actor, who died in 2008, fought back against humor that dismissed the film" s="" importance."
The subject came up in
This led the actor to recall:
"I mean, I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it," he says. "And Heath refused. I was sort of at the time, 'Oh, okay... whatever.' I'm always like' target='_blank'> It's all in good fun. And Heath said, 'It's not a joke to me – I don't want to make any jokes about it.'' I say how smart of Ledger that seems, in retrospect. Absolutely,"
Interviewer Chris Heath recalled how Gyllenhaal had told him ten years ago that he couldn't watch the film, and asked whether that is still the case.
"He says it is," Heath writes. "He talks – then and now – about the fllm as though it was something he was fully committed to but which nonetheless in some ways existed beyond his control and understanding. 'There are things you're chosen for – a quality, an essence – and Ang did that. And it's still a mystery to me. And something that Heath and I shared: That it was a mystery to us at the time,' " said Gyllenhaal.
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