No Heath?
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Heath Ledger almost declined the role of Ennis Del Mar! He was uncertain about the role when it was first offered, but his then-girlfriend Naomi Watts encouraged him to take it after she read the script. When Ledger read the script himself, he said he would have flown to Taiwan to meet with director Ang Lee to be hired for the role. Just how good of a decision was this on Ledger’s part? He would go on to be Nominated in 2006 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, while many thought he should have won the award.
A Tremendous Performance
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Brokeback Mountain writer, Annie Proulx, sent Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger signed copies of the original script. When signing the copy to Jake, she wrote “To Jake”, but when signing the copy to Heath, she wrote, “To Ennis.” She didn’t even notice what she had done at first, but upon realizing it, she decided to let the “mistake” be. At a screening in Hollywood, Proulx explained that she felt Ledger was Ennis and that he portrayed Ennis in every way she could have imagined. Proulx wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Legendary actor Daniel Day-Lewis, cites Ledger’s performance as one of his favorites and describes his final scene in the film, as “as moving as anything I’ve ever seen.”
A True Brotherhood
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But it wasn’t all method acting for Heath Ledger. He declined to go to a one-month cowboy camp that had been organized since he had grown up on farms in Western Australia. Jake Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, was required to attend since he needed some “roughing up.” That lack of quality time in pre-production didn’t stop the two leading actors from bonding while filming. Jake Gyllenhaal is the godfather of co-stars Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams’ daughter, Matilda Ledger. Ledger and Williams fell in love while filming Brokeback Mountain, and their daughter, Matilda, was born shortly before the film premiered.
Michelle’s Standards
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Leading lady Michelle Williams, who plays Alma in the film, requested that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger kiss in front of her to help her get to a certain emotional place for her character, who is married to Ledger’s Ennis in the film. As she was romantically involved with Ledger in real life, she felt seeing him kiss someone in front of her would only help her portrayal. Feeling their first few kissing attempts were not up to her standards, she had to push both men to get into it. Maybe she’s partly to blame for an incident when filming began when Ledger almost broke Gyllenhaal’s nose by kissing him too hard!
Anne’s Audition
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But what about the rest of the cast? Anne Hathaway’s road to Brokeback Mountain was unorthodox, to say the least. Ang Lee was unfamiliar with Hathaway and her work before her audition for the film. But, according to an article published in Variety, he was told by the casting director that “the next actress coming in to read was going to apologize for her clothes and make-up, but to just let her do that, and go into the reading.” So what was up with Anne, who showed up to the dramatic audition “wearing heavy make-up and dressed as a princess”? She was filming The Princess Dairies 2: Royal Engagement, which was on the Universal Lot (the same lot where the Brokeback Mountain audition was taking place), and was on her lunch break.
A White Lie
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More from Anne’s audition… the casting director was worried that Anne’s previous films such as The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted might work against her, so when she came into the audition, she introduced her to Ang Lee as a New York City Broadway actress. During the actual audition, Hathaway lied about being good around horses. When she finally got the role, she took two months of horse riding lessons. She also learned how to barrel race, but the insurance company insisted a stunt double perform such a scene when filming. C’mon guys, let Anne get her Tom Cruise on!
Thoughts From Jake
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On the line “I wish I knew how to quit you”, Jake Gyllenhaal said:
“That line has moved, it has been mocked, it has been everything in between, but I remember coming out of that scene, off that ridge of the hill, and seeing a number of the crew, some of whom didn’t even know what the movie was about, crying. When I first read that line, I was like, ‘What is that?’ Now I realize that anybody who has loved knows what that feels like. The interesting part of casting us at such a young age was that we didn’t completely understand what we were involved in, and that’s the beauty of the movie as well.”
What-If Options
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So who were some of the other names associated with the Brokeback Mountain script at one time or another? Reportedly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe, and Brad Pitt all turned it down. Josh Hartnett, Colin Farrell, Billy Crudup, and Ben Affleck were another set of actors considered for the male leads, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was considered for Ennis. Sienna Miller was scheduled to audition for Lureen Twist, but couldn’t make the audition due to a horrific cough. In terms of directing, Gus Van Sant and Joel Schumacher were interested in directing the film. Van Sant attempted to adapt Annie Proulx’s short story, with Matt Damon as Ennis and Joaquin Phoenix as Jack. Proulx’s story takes up essentially only 50 pages of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana’s script.
Cut This Out!
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According to Heath Ledger, in an interview he gave to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there was a scene that was filmed in which Ennis and Jack help a few hippies get their car out of the river. It was written as an attempt to show Jack and Ennis in a heroic situation. According to Ledger, it took three days to shoot the scene but was disliked immediately by everyone involved. The scene did not appear in Annie Proulx’s original short story, the published script, or the final cut of Brokeback Mountain. Sounds like Ang Lee made the right decision there!
A Special Honor
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In 2018, Brokeback Mountain was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Ang Lee, interestingly enough, said that he never sought out Brokeback Mountain to make a statement, but that he simply wanted to tell a love story. According to IMDb.com, Lee said in a statement: “To my great surprise, the film ended up striking a deep chord with audiences; the movie became a part of the culture, a reflection of the darkness and light of violent prejudice and enduring love in the rocky landscape of the American heart.”
