Jake Gyllenhaal Reveals Why Heath Ledger Said No to ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Oscars Bit

Even more a shame the guy is no longer with us! Oh how hilarious it would have been for the two straight male leads to stand up in front of the whole of Hollywood and make jokes about them 'being gay!'. Ledger had integrity and a level of awareness that is lacking in Hollywood!

What a class act. I wonder how far his career could have gone. Such a loss.

He would have had a really sturdy, credible career and picked interesting parts, as opposed to cashing in with Hollywood blockbusters.

IIRC they still opened the show making fun of Brokeback Mountain with Billy Crystal and Chris Rock both turning down the offer to host because they were too busy fucking each other in a tent in the mountains

I too think Heath Ledger would have had a tremendous career taking on roles that challenged him. Watch him in "10 Things I Hate About You" (where he probably was being himself), then "Brokeback Mountain" then his performance as The Joker. Three completely different characters with nothing similar among them....voice, actions, body language. He really looked for internal ways to bring a character to life. I actually feel that he would have played Hamlet one day, probably on Broadway in a limited engagement.

Good for Heath. That was the right call.

He was wearing that hat when I saw him on G train. We were both headed into Brooklyn. He had a bunch of bags from Bed Bath & Beyond. I think they’d just had their baby. The train stopped suddenly and the conductor’s instructions went on and on and were completely unintelligible and we looked at each other, both baffled and increasingly amused as the unfollowable directions were relayed and layed and relayed. He was smaller than I would’ve guessed and unassuming. Just looked like a hipster who’d wasted a bunch of money on Chinese junk from Bed Bath & Beyond.

I always got the impression he was a good guy.

I did not like Heath Ledger in his role as “Joker”.

May I say that Jake Gyllenhaal looks especially fine in the pic OP posted.

"I did not like Heath Ledger in his role as “Joker”.

Oh, come on. He was brilliant in that. His Joker was repulsive, cunning, funny, dangerous, merciless, psychopathic, calculating, enigmatic and oddly sexy. His portrayal was a million times better than Joaquin Phoenix's oafish, pathetic Joker.

Sounds like Jake learned from Heath and grew as a person.

I thought he was very good in the role but I do not like the Dark Knight movies. Their realism is too intense for a superhero to exist. They are devoid of any purpose.