Everyone has a Brokeback - sometimes we get to go there, sometimes we don't

I really want to thank everyone for their very moving comments yesterday as we sat around the figurative campfire and reminisced about what our first viewing of Brokeback Mountain was like. I have no doubt that we'll do that again here as I think most of us will always have time and heart for Brokeback. So when a friend told me all about this interview, I couldn't pass it by, and I hope that people will humour me for having two Brokeback posts in a row! I for one am still in the mood for some daydreaming about Jack and Ennis and this just does the trick - yet again we are treated to Jake expressing with such earnestness what this film and role meant to him in terms of love.


The interview was recorded during the Venice Film Festival in 2005 when, of course, Jake was just 24, reminding us of how young Jake was when he took on the role of Jack Twist. It also makes me appreciate the extent to which Jake must have thought about love in his own life and in that of Jack as he sat on that lonely mountain during gaps between takes, making him sound wise beyond those young years.



"Everybody says love has no bounds," Jake says, "and we all subscribe to that idea... It's become such a cliche that we don't really believe that, because when it comes really down to love has no bounds, we don't buy it... I stay within a form of 'Is that OK to do? Is that OK to do?' And this movie was like it has no bounds... These aren't like two gay guys. These are two people who fall in love and from the environment that they're in, which is incredibly lonely, they find each other."



Ang Lee supports this incredibly personal and private impact that his film has had on both its actors and its viewers and maybe himself; "Everyone has a Brokeback - sometimes we get to go there, sometimes we don't." And he speaks with pride of his young cast, aware that he captured something so special on camera: "They're innocent, they're in the pivotal point in their career. They're becoming characters that carry the movie... They're smart, talented and the look's just right. They still have that innocence and they listen! Sometimes it's like the best times in their lives and I just want to capture them." And how he did.


Much thanks and love to my friend for sharing the interview with me. Includes pictures from IHJ.