In 2006, a pioneering drama was nominated for eight awards at the 78th Academy Awards. It won three trophies, including ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay,’ and there was a massive outcry that it didn’t also take home ‘Best Picture.’ It was an incredible outpouring of positivity for a movie that had been controversial in certain quarters from its inception. In fact, that controversy may have discouraged a catalogue of Hollywood A-listers from signing up for the co-lead roles, with one director initially attached to make the film lamenting how nobody wanted to commit to it.

In October 1997, a short story was published in The New Yorker by writer Annie Proulx. It was read by the screenwriting team Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, who asked if they could turn it into a screenplay. Proulx wasn’t convinced it would easily be turned into a movie, but in 1999, she publicly praised the adaptation written by Ossana and McMurtry. Unfortunately, the film then entered development hell, as its subject matter made it a hard sell to directors, production companies, and actors.

The first director to officially commit to the film was Gus Van Sant of Good Will Hunting, but he subsequently found casting the main roles of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist challenging. Of course, by that point, Brokeback Mountain had already become known dismissively as the “gay cowboy” movie in Hollywood circles. At its core, though, it was a heartfelt drama about the taboo romantic relationship of two men in the American West, and that scared a lot of people.

“Nobody wanted to do it,” Van Sant told IndieWire. “I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out. I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.”

In Damon’s defence, at least, he did have a fairly good reason for turning the film down, even if his explanation was a bit flippant. He had just starred in The Talented Mr Ripley and All the Pretty Horses, so he exclaimed, “Gus, I did a gay movie, then a cowboy movie. I can’t follow it up with a gay cowboy movie!”

By 2001, the script was officially optioned by Focus Features, and when Van Sant exited the project, it was offered to Pedro Almodóvar. He turned it down, reportedly out of fear that he wouldn’t be granted artistic freedom on the movie. Thankfully, though, Ang Lee finally signed up in 2003. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director met with Mark Wahlberg about starring in the film, but he turned it down because the subject matter conflicted with his Catholic religion.

“I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out,” Wahlberg admitted in 2007. “It was very graphic, descriptive – the spitting on the hand, getting ready to do the thing. I told Ang Lee, ‘I like you; you’re a talented guy, if you want to talk about it more.’ Thankfully, he didn’t. I didn’t rush to see Brokeback, it’s just not my deal. Obviously, it was done in taste – look how it was received.”

This unfortunate quote shows exactly what Brokeback Mountain was up against in the mid-’00s. Thankfully, though, two actors brave enough to tackle the movie finally came along when Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger signed on the dotted line. The movie was a watershed moment in mainstream LGBTQ filmmaking and both stars approached their parts with sensitivity, nuance, and care. Fittingly, they were rewarded with Oscar nominations for their brave performances.

“It is about…the first kind of very profound gay love story,” Gyllenhaal told The Hollywood Reporter. “Hopefully, it can create an equality of an idea: that is, it’s possible that you can find love anywhere. That intimacy exists in so many places that convention and society won’t always allow us to see.”