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Jake Gyllenhaal Says Heath Ledger Refused to Present at Oscars Over ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Joke

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In a cover story for the Summer/Autumn 2020 issue of  Another Man magazine Jake Gyllenhaal talks about his friend and co-star of Brokeback Mountain Heath Ledger and how his unwillingness to joke about the material in the film led to him not presenting at the Oscars in protest in 2007.

Ledger died in 2008

The Ang Lee directed  romance about two closeted cowboys based on a 1997 New Yorker story by Annie Proulx  received eight Academy Award nominations at the 2007 ceremony, including acting nominations for both Gyllenhaal and Ledger.

Writer Chris Heath says towards the end of the story, that thoroughly covers Gyllenhaal’s oeuvre, “I mention to Gyllenhaal that when I recently watched back old TV interviews from the time, I was jolted by how homophobic a lot of the banter seems, even when it was intending to be the opposite: gay cowboys, it’s all a tremendous joke. This reminds him of something.”

“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: 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,” says Gyllenhaal.

Read the full story here.

Below Gyllenhaal posted on Instagram, “These photographs were taken by the late, great Peter Lindbergh, only a couple of months ago. He personified the idea that freedom is on the other side of discipline. It was an honor to have worked with him.”

Lindbergh died last September.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Fi3blHcir/

 

 

 

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