‘Brokeback Mountain’ at 20: Tracing every actor and director who dropped out or turned it down
It has taken Hollywood a long time to show queer relationships on the big screen, something hindered by the fact that homosexuality wasn’t fully decriminalised in the United States until the early 2000s.
It’s crazy to think that there were still American states where it was illegal to engage in homosexual acts as recently as the beginning of the 21st century, but it gives context to the rather complicated history of queer representation on screen, where it has always been rare for a mainstream Hollywood film to depict a same-sex relationship.
Thus, when Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, was released in 2005, it was pretty revolutionary for having two big stars appear in a movie about cowboys who engage in an intimate physical relationship, which was still considered rather taboo at the time, to the point where it even stopped Mark Wahlberg from taking on the role.
The actor told WENN, “I met with Ang Lee on that movie, I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out”, adding about the parts that caused him discomfort by highlighting some key scenes, “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.”
It turns out he was even advised by his Catholic priest not to do the movie, so clearly, Wahlberg wasn’t meant for the part if he was going to be so openly homophobic about it. Meanwhile, someone who was actually keen to do the film was Josh Hartnett, who was cast alongside Joaquin Phoenix before scheduling conflicts resulted in them dropping out, about which, speaking to News, the actor joked, “I was going to do Brokeback Mountain. I’ve always wanted to kiss Joaquin. So that’s my biggest regret”.
Even before Harnett and Phoenix were names in the hat, there were some other actors who turned the movie down, and that was before Lee was even attached to the project. Gus Van Sant was set to direct, which, following the success of My Own Private Idaho, makes sense, but in the end, his struggle to put together the perfect cast proved a hindrance, telling 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.”
Moreover, he wasn’t the only director who turned the film down due to not having the right conditions to make it, with Pedro Almodovar finding that he just wouldn’t have enough creative freedom to make the movie as explicit as he thought it should be.
He told IndieWire, “I think Ang Lee made a wonderful movie, but I never believed that they would give me complete freedom and independence to make what I wanted. The relation between these two guys is animalistic. It was a physical relationship. The punch of the movie comes when they have to separate, and Heath Ledger discovers that he can’t think about leaving.”
The director explained how he saw the passion between the two protagonists as raw, giving in to base urges, noting, “That’s a strong discovery. But until that moment, it is animalistic, and for me, it was impossible to have that in the movie because it was a Hollywood movie. You could not have these two guys fucking all the time.”
Regardless, the final version of what we know as Brokeback Mountain ended up being a big success, winning ‘Best Director’ for Lee, ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Original Score’ at the Academy Awards, although there was controversy when it missed out on ‘Best Picture’.
Still, it was a turning point for gay representation in Hollywood, propelled by incredible performances from Ledger and Gyllenhaal and their heartbreaking and tender chemistry.
