Heath Ledger And His Blockbuster Movie Co-Star Had Lots Of Friction
Ang Lee revealed that Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal had issues with one another while filming Brokeback Mountain.
There was a lot of tension between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal while filming Brokeback Mountain – and we’re not talking about sexual tension. The movie’s director, Ang Lee, told Empire that the former would have made a great director one day, which may be what contributed to what he called a “clash of styles” between the two.
While Heath Ledger always took care of Michelle Williams on the set, especially after she broke her knee during the pre-shooting stage, he and Jake Gyllenhaal were often at odds. They weren’t exactly “quarreling,” but they weren’t really getting along either. Although to be fair, they did do their best to try to find a way through it to a compromise.
Lee went on to say that Heath Ledger did a lot of internal work on his character, to the point where he felt like he knew him inside and out. He was good at following directions but he, “worked alone.” He was very independent in his approach to finding and portraying the character, and, for the most part, Lee just let him do it his own way since it worked out well on screen.
Gyllenhaal himself has previously spoken about Brokeback Mountain’s enduring legacy as well. He has said that, while a lot of people were making fun of the film (which was one of the first to portray a genuine, serious, realistic romance between two men), Heath Ledger was a consummate professional. He always took what he was doing seriously, and was extremely devoted to doing his character, Ennis, justice.
Even if Heath Ledger wasn’t a gay man in real life, he did grow up on a ranch in his native Australia, so he had the cowboy part of his role in Brokeback Mountain down pat. He was in his element when he was around horses and other farm animals, which helped to make his character seem even more realistic. As he did in other roles like The Dark Knight, he very much got into the character’s head and made him come to life on the screen.
It isn’t clear from the Empire interview just which issues, exactly, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal “quarreled” about, but Lee did say that at times he had to step in to mediate to work things out. “They were good in different ways,” he said, which implies that perhaps while Ledger’s intense devotion to the film and portraying his character as realistically as possible was essential, Gyllenhaal had a talent for another aspect of the craft that was equally worth consideration.
Though the tension between the two actors in real life didn’t detract from their chemistry on screen, as Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal went on to win the MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Kiss for their revolutionary on-screen liplock the year the film was released. Brokeback Mountain also won a long list of other prestigious awards in the movie industry and is still considered to be one of the most important films of our time.
Tragically, Heath Ledger died in 2008, just a few years after filming Brokeback Mountain, so he and Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t have the chance to work together again.
