Jake Gyllenhaal recently shared his thoughts on playing a gay cowboy in the acclaimed 2005 film Brokeback Mountain even though there was still a “stigma” attached to taking on queer roles in mainstream movies.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Gyllenhaal was asked if there would be a “different reaction” today to the idea of himself and Heath Ledger being cast in the now-iconic roles.
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Gyllenhaal responded. “Part of the medicine of storytelling is that we were two straight guys playing these parts.”
“There was a stigma about playing a part like that, you know, why would you do that?” he continued. “And I think it was very important to both of us to break that stigma.”
Gyllenhaal also wondered if the financial and artistic success of the film (8 Oscar nominations including nods for both Ledger and Gyllenhaal) might have helped the industry move past the stigma.
“I think that has led the way towards people saying, you know, people of all different experiences should be playing more roles, that it shouldn’t be limited to a small group of people,” added the 40-year-old actor. “And I believe that.”
At the time, his Brokeback performance predictably led to questions of whether he was possibly gay/bisexual. In December 2005, Gyllenhaal waved those queries aside.
“You know, it’s flattering when there’s a rumor that says I’m bisexual,” said Gyllenhaal. “It means I can play more kinds of roles.”
“I’m open to whatever people want to call me. I’ve never really been attracted to men sexually, but I don’t think I would be afraid of it if it happened.”
Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger in ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (photo: Focus Features)Since that time, there has been much discussion about the casting of straight actors in gay roles and vice versa.
In January, Russell T. Davies said in an interview regarding his acclaimed queer-themed UK TV series It’s A Sin, that he feels strongly that gay actors should play gay roles.
“They are not there to ‘act gay’ because ‘acting gay’ is a bunch of codes for a performance,” said Davies. “It’s about authenticity, the taste of 2020.”
But one of the stars of It’s A Sin, out actor Neil Patrick Harris, disagreed saying straight actors should get the chance to ‘play gay’ as long as it’s done in a respectful way. Ewan McGregor, who identifies as straight, recently scored an Emmy Award for playing out fashion designer Halston in the Netflix bio-series “Halston.”
More recently, I reported on some debate regarding Taron Egerton (Rocketman) being cast in the role of a gay man in the upcoming West End revival of the provocative play, C*ck. Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), an out gay actor, has been announced as his co-star.
https://twitter.com/AJHJR/status/1441340162802262019 https://twitter.com/AJHJR/status/1441369020943540225
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