Ang Lee Recalls the 'Friction' Between Ledger, Gyllenhaal on 'Brokeback' Set

The sparks fly hot between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal on the screen in the 2005 gay cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain." But behind the scenes there was heat of a different sort between the actors, who were both straight, director Ang Lee recalls.

"The director remembered late lead star Heath Ledger in a tribute for Empire's Greatest Actors Issue," IndieWire reports, adding that Lee "detailed the 'friction' between Ledger and co-star Jake Gyllenhaal" as the two worked on the movie.

Lee told the movie magazine that "Heath had a very different attitude towards their work" on the film than co-star Gyllenhaal. "Sometimes there was friction – not quarreling, but a clash of styles.

"Sometimes I would mediate that, but they were both good in different ways," Lee went on to say. "They would always make the effort to find a way through."

Speaking more specifically about Ledger, Lee detailed how Ledger's character, Ennis, was "a very repressed character, macho but gay, gay but homophobic – and often there is no vocabulary to express his feelings."

The director added that "Heath's aura powers the whole story. He did a lot of preparation, mostly on his own. And he often surprised me with what he brought to his work."

Lee went on to add, "In his heart, I think Heath knew the character of Ennis deeply. On a technical level, he took direction very well, but worked alone. He's not someone you really needed to talk to a lot, because he was very independent. For me, if the result is right, then I'm happy. If it's not, I could tell him, and he would work something else out."

Lee expressed his admiration for Ledger's talent, noting that he died too soon. "Heath Ledger was a brilliant young actor," Lee said. "God only knows what he would have achieved later in life. He had so much talent – I'm sure he would have been a great director.

Ledger died in early 2008 in Manhattan. Gyllenhaal has gone on to a prolific and highly-regarded career. In the years since making "Brokeback Mountain," Gyllenhaal has occasionally spoken about the film. The actor told Howard Stern last year that he would most likely not make the film today.

"The amount of flack we got for that was crazy," Gyllenhaal said. "For a year after that, the amount of conversations about what my sexuality was, I was like alright guys, and girls... chill out."

Earlier this year, Gyllenhaal recalled working with Ledger in comments for a Variety video, People Magazine reported.

"One of the things I really remember about the process after the movie came out was Heath never wanting to make a joke" at the expense of the film's two gay characters, "even as I think culturally, there were many jokes being made about the movie or poking fun". Gyllenhaal recalled Ledger's "consummate devotion to how serious and important the relationship between these two characters was."