Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the premier acting talents in Hollywood today. Not only can he pull off some of the strangest characters in film (just look at “Nightcrawler” for perhaps Gyllenhaal’s best example of this), but the actor is also able to elevate what could be a standard superhero trope character in “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and create something truly special. But really, to see where the massive growth in Gyllenhaal’s career came from, we have to go back to Ang Lee’s “gay cowboy” film, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Of course, we use “gay cowboy” not as an insult, but as a way of showing that most people think of the Oscar-winning film as just that, the gay cowboy movie. But according to a new interview with the Today Show, Gyllenhaal explains that his late-co-star Heath Ledger absolutely despised that description and would correct people whenever he got the chance.
READ MORE: The Best LGBTQ Films Of The 21st Century (So Far)
“I see people who have joked with me or criticized me about lines I say in that movie — and that’s the thing I loved about Heath,” the actor said. “He would never joke. Someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, ‘No. This is about love.’ Like, ‘that’s it, man. Like, no.’”
“He was extraordinarily serious about the political issues surrounding the movie when it came out,” Gyllenhaal added. “A lot of times people would want to have fun and joke about it, and he was vehement about being serious, to the point where he didn’t really want to hear about anything that was being made fun of.”
As mentioned, Ang Lee’s film would go on to win three Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Score. For their work in the film, Ledger and Gyllenhaal were both nominated for Oscars, as well, but neither won.
So, maybe, almost 15 years after the film was released, we can honor Ledger and not use the “gay cowboy” description when talking about “Brokeback Mountain?”
