When Brokeback Mountain was released in 2005, it sadly became the subject of widespread mockery and anti-gay criticism from people uncomfortable with the concept of two cowboys falling in love.
Leading actor Heath Ledger repeatedly made it known that he wasn’t OK with people making jokes about the film, with his costar Jake Gyllenhaal revealing in 2019 that he outright shut down any kind of mockery. “Someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever… [Heath] was like, ‘No. This is about love.’ Like, that’s it, man. Like, no,” he recalled of Heath, who sadly died in 2008.
The following year, Jake revealed that Heath even refused to present at the 2006 Oscars — the same year that Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Academy awards — because an anti-gay joke was allegedly set to feature during the opening.
“I was sort of at the time, ‘Oh, OK… whatever.’ I’m always like, ‘It’s all in good fun,’” Jake said. “And Heath said, ‘It’s not a joke to me — I don’t want to make any jokes about it.’”
And this week, a resurfaced clip from a 2006 press conference shows Heath once again expertly handling criticism of the film’s gay love story.
In the clip, which was shared by PinkNews, a reporter at the Berlinale Press Conference asked Heath: “How do you respond to such people who suggest that this is, uh, disgusting?”
Heath immediately groaned and said, “I don’t know. I think it’s a real shame.” He then quickly added, “Well, I think it’s immature, for one. Really immature. But I think that it’s an incredible shame that people go out of their way to discuss disgust or to voice their disgust, I should say. Or negative opinions about the way two people wish to love another.”
“I mean, at least voice your opinions on how two people should hate and [show] violence and anger towards each other. Isn’t that more important? I think so,” he went on.
“The pure fact of it is it transcends a label; it’s human. It’s a story of two human beings, two souls that are in love. It’s like, get over the fact that there’s two men — that’s the point!” Heath said.
“The movie is not a story about an epidemic or a virus or something that can be cured in a hospital. We’re showing that love between two men is just as infectious and emotional and strong and pure as it is with heterosexual love,” he added.
After watching the resurfaced clip, several internet users have praised Heath’s “progressive and mature” stance.
“He handled the production and press with incredible grace,” one Reddit user wrote. “How incredibly progressive and mature. I wish we could say that things have drastically improved since this time but we seem to be going backwards again now,” someone said.
“Truly king behavior to be so bored by the question,” one user said, while another admitted that they were left super emotional by the clip, writing, “This makes me tear up.”
Meanwhile, several fans wound up discussing how horribly Brokeback Mountain was treated amid its release, with the actors consistently questioned about its gay love portrayal and, of course, finding themselves at the center of anti-gay jokes.
One person cited the 2006 MTV Movie & TV Awards, where Justin Timberlake and Eva Mendes presented Jake with the “Best Kiss” award. When Eva read out, “The best kiss goes to…” Justin said, “Ooh, it’s the fellas,” before jokingly swerving Jake on stage.
