Expect to be reading and seeing much more about Brokeback Mountain in the coming weeks as the media seizes on this groundbreaking movie. I have a feeling we’ll probably be hearing from some of the conservative wingnuts as well about how gays are destroying the American cowboy tradition, blah, blah, blah…
But anyway, Jake Gyllenhaal recently talked to the Calgary Sun about what it was like preparing to shoot Brokeback in the cold, windy mountain country of Alberta, Canada.
“Heath and I came to Calgary early to rehearse with Ang. The first place he took us was a campground (near Fort Macleod). There was a trailer for me, one for Heath, another for Ang and a fourth for (producer) Michael Houseman. We were living in the trailers and it was spectacularly beautiful country, but it was also really lonely. It really began to affect Heath and I, but that’s exactly what Ang wanted. He wanted us to experience the loneliness our characters felt. Just looking at the Alberta landscapes as Ang filmed them, you get a real sense that it’s being so lonely that brings them together. Straight or gay, everyone understands the concept of loneliness and how it makes you search out someone to help fill that void for you.”
Jake also recently brushed off notions that it took courage to play an intimate gay character: “What I think is really more courageous is people who are trying to be more intimate in their real life who are up against real things. Intimacy is an incredibly hard thing for all of us no matter what the political things going on around it are. For everybody loving somebody and being close to somebody is filled with just as much anger and resentment and jealousy as much as there is love and happiness when we’re playing characters. I think it’s a time where more people are open to this than it might seem. This is an interesting idea and I think audiences want to see that.”
And here are some screencaps from Jake’s recent appearance on Ellen, in case you missed it.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Naked Butt [tr]
Not Your Typical Cowboy [tr]