In a recent interview, actor Jake
Gyllenhaal said that Brokeback Mountain helped end the stigma
of straight actors playing LGBT roles.
Director Ang Lee's 2005 gay cowboy film
starred Gyllenhaal opposite the late Heath Ledger.
(Related: Jake
Gyllenhaal misses Heath Ledger “as a human being”; Says Brokeback
changed him.)
When The Sunday Times asked
whether he felt that there would be a “different reaction” to
straight actors being cast in the film if it were made today,
Gyllenhaal responded, “I don't know. Maybe?”
“Part of the medicine of storytelling
is that we were two straight guys playing these parts,” Gyllenhaal
explained. “There was a stigma about playing a part like that, you
know, why would you do that? And I think it was very important to
both of us to break that stigma.”
“People of all different experiences
should be playing more roles, that it shouldn't be limited to a small
group of people. And I believe that.”
“The reaction from the majority of
the gay community when the movie came out, I got this sort of – we
both did, everyone in the movie – we got this overwhelming sense of
open-heartedness and gratitude,” he
added.
Brokeback Mountain was a
critical and commercial success.