Celebrities Who Turned Down Brokeback Mountain Roles

June 2024 · 3 minute read

A very other movie! Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal both earned Oscar nominations for their roles in Brokeback Mountain — however they weren’t the one actors considered for the complex characters.

Josh Hartnett, Leonardo DiCaprio and more Hollywood A-Listers had been virtually cast within the memorable roles.

“This is a film about two men who fall in love. It’s very specific,” screenwriter Diana Ossana said right through an April 2018 Q&A session moderated by The Wrap. “It’s about Ennis and Jack and it’s about their flaws and their errors and their struggles and their humanity.”

In the movie, cowboys Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) expand a sexual and emotional courting, which is only made more complicated after they get married to their respective girlfriends, Alma Beers (Michelle Williams) and Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway) and feature kids.

The 2005 movie used to be no longer a “universal love tale,” Ossana recalled, noting that “no person would devote” to the lead roles. She remembered a protracted checklist of “distinguished young actors” agreeing and later leaving the venture during its eight-year building process.

“We sent it to Edward Norton [to direct] and Joel Schumacher and dozens of folks and they all came again pronouncing they cherished it, however no one would dedicate,” Ossana persisted. “They didn’t give us any actual excuse why they wouldn’t. I assume they saw it as too tough.”

Big names, including Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix have been at one level tied to the challenge when director Gus Van Sant was once on board, however later fell through. Ang Lee used to be later selected because the film’s director.

Ossana explained that in spite of the entire casting ups and downs, she always sought after Ledger in the position of Ennis. “Nobody sought after Heath but me and [co-writer] Larry [McMurtry]. The studio felt he wasn’t macho sufficient,” she printed.

The Australia native eventually signed on after studying the script on his manner house. “He informed me at the set, you realize, ‘It’s essentially the most stunning script I’ve ever read in my existence, and I would’ve rowed a boat halfway around the world to satisfy with Ang to be in this film,’” Ossana stated. “It used to be a fight to get him, but boy was it worth it.”

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After finding its main men, Brokeback Mountain went on to 2 3 Academy Awards — Best Achievement in Directing, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. It won five more nods, together with Best Motion Picture of the Year.

Scroll down to peer which stars virtually performed Ennis and Jack:

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