Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in a Gay Movie?
Winning director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" won the Golden
Lion for best film at the closing awards ceremonies for the 62nd
Venice International Film Festival held recently.
"I am so glad the film has prevailed and has been accepted so
well here, " said Lee, whose touching love portrait of two gay
cowboys played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal set the
audience abuzz following its screening. Ang Lee's tale of the
homosexual love between two cowboys was set in the conservative
West of the 1960s.
Jake Gyllenhaal has admitted that he was hesitant when he first
heard about the cowboy movie with gay theme. But all his doubts
disappeared when Jake learned that "BrokeBack Mountain" was to
be directed by Academy award winning director, Ang Lee. Lee had
previously directed the winning film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon."
At a news conference in Toronto, Gyllenhaal stressed that "when
you know you have someone who's made movies that deal with
pretty challenging themes and has tackled them with the kind of
universality and compassion that Ang has, you throw yourselves
into the arms of that person and you trust them and you feel
safe and you go for it."
"Brokeback Mountain" is based on a novel by Annie Prouix and
tells the story of a tormented affair between two men who meet
one summer in western Wyoming while herding sheep. Though the
film's gay theme had undoubtedly ruffled some conservative
feathers due to the explicit scenes between two hot young male
stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, it has already received
considerable praise and pre-Oscar buzz.
Jake Gyllenhaal revealed that kissing a boy--Heath Ledger in the
film--almost led to a broken nose for him. "He grabs me and he
slams me up against the wall and kisses me, and then I grab him
and I slam him up against the wall and I kiss him," he said
during a news conference, adding that the love scenes were the
most violent he'd ever done.
Heath Ledger admits that he was attracted to the project because
it was a fresh take on the stereotyped and often humdrum
Hollywood love story. In the film, the two cowboys fall in love,
and their aching and forceful romance spans the course of close
to 20 years. Ledger had complained about having to work out for
the role. He was even surprised at all the work he's had to put
in for the role. "You'd think you would kind of build up and
work out to play a superhero or something, but it ends up being
for a gay cowboy story," Ledger tells Jay Leno during an
interview.
The 24-year-old Australian heartthrob Heath Ledger is looking
forward to what is sure to be one of the most talked-about films
of next year. "It's a gorgeous script, and God, Jake's cute," he
jokingly tells Leno.