Jake - 'Ang saw something in both of us that neither of us saw'

After focusing on Brokeback Mountain yesterday, I got the taste for it and so, with no apologies or preamble, here is another video interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, again from the Venice Film Festival (same day and place by the look of it) in 2005. This time, Australian journalist Margaret Pomeranz talks with Jake, Ang Lee and Heath Ledger about what drew them to the film and to each other.


Again, Jake stresses that it was having Ang on board as the director that drew him to want to do the role: 'I had read the script like probably three or four years before and was terrified of it. And as soon as he came on, I just thought, "Ang Lee, I mean, I would do anything that Ang Lee did." And at the same time I knew that the ideas behind it, there wouldn't be such a focus on, really, as much the sexuality of it as much as the love story, which I knew he would pursue and he would fight for. It's a scary topic for a lot of people. I totally understand that. I think that people will agree and disagree with it, like they do on the topic in general. But these aren't, in my belief, these aren't, like, two gay guys, these are two people who fall in love. And, you know, from the environment that they're in, which is incredibly lonely, and, you know, they find each other.'

Jake says of working with Heath: 'We took time where one of us didn't want to take the step and the other one would take the step first and the other one would follow.'


I think many of us are interested in how the film, and Ang's presentation of the love story, differed from, or complemented, Annie Proulx' original short story. In an interview with PlanetOut, Ang described how he altered the physical appearance of the characters, especially Jack Twist. Inevitably, this was influenced by the choice of actor: '...but I will say that these two were the best actors I could find. Others were more nervous. My first instinct was to cast as close to the short story as possible, but then I realized that I needed actors who could go for it and that they had to function well as a couple in a love story.'


Ang goes on to say 'Movies and books are different. You have to rely on the genre. The film is not a Western; it's a romantic love story, although I think Heath did carry somewhat of a Western mood. We had to provide that classic American romantic love story figure, and Jake fit along those lines, but with him we deviated from the short story, where Jack was bulkier and stockier and more manly. The film has to function as a love story, where, usually, a good couple is quite opposite from each other in disposition and appearance. I think Heath and Jake made a good couple -- plus they're good actors.'

The scenes in the movie could be different too, with others added, including one of the most beautiful scenes from the entire film: 'The next love scene I added because I wanted the characters to commit to each other. Ironically, they declare to each other that they're not queer so they can put [the label] aside, and then commit to each other and be tender, accepting, and sexy. The second scene was about commitment, although only while they're on the mountain.'


It's fascinating to consider whom Ang would have cast in a different age of cinema: 'Paul Newman and Montgomery Clift. They were both classic American romantic figures. Even back in the early '60s they weren't young enough to play these characters, but they still would have worked.'

Jake told The Cinema Source that he believed he would have been picked for the Ennis role: 'When I read the script for the first time, I thought Ang would want to cast me as Ennis and Heath would be cast as Jack just because you’re used to seeing Heath be so outgoing, being a kind of active presence... Somewhere in my mind, naively, I thought that. And when we were cast opposite of what I thought, I realized Ang saw something in both of us that neither of us saw.'


And for the love scenes: '"We knew it was part of servicing the story. Different times, people have said to me, ‘We hear you didn’t get naked for this or we hear you didn’t do this thing or the love scenes really aren’t that explicit’ and I think the film’s pretty much proved them wrong. I’m not afraid to do any of those things.” Preparation, as the actor thankfully notes, was short. "We didn’t really rehearse it at all. Ang did a really, really great thing: we had decided there would be no playback so we wouldn’t be able to see what we had done and no one was on-set with us. It was Ang and our cinematographer and Heath and I."'


For Jake, the film was all about showing people that love is different from the cliche - it's never easy to share that intimacy with another soul and sometimes it can't work out. 'I’ll be happy if people went into theaters thinking one thing and walking out thinking differently about it, that they go, ‘Oh, wow. Intimacy is a hard thing for all of us, no matter what the political things going on around it are.’ For everybody, loving and being with somebody is filled with just as much anger and resentment and jealousy as much as it is love and happiness and compassion, a sort of deeper understanding because Ang Lee has walked them through that.'


Finally, on February 13 2006, the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica hosted a Brokeback Mountain evening which finished with a Q&A with a number of people involved with the project (except Ang who was caught in a snow storm), including Jake and Heath. According to one report, Jake was the most high-sprited of those on the stage, even doing a Barry Gibb imprssion with the old fashioned microphone. The event was sold out - not surprisingly - and one person gave an account of parts of the Q&A to Defamer. This is what they said: 'Jake was a pleasant surprise with interesting, thoughtful comments and answers (“I prefer Revelation to Rationalization”) but let's be honest, his parents are well read (see past Defamer postings). It was a good Q & A. We all know that there is nothing worse than sitting through a bad Q & A in this town. Even more surprising was the interesting questions coming from the audience. Here's a sampling: Question: “Have you had any interviews where you WEREN'T asked what the love scenes were like to film?” Answer: “No”. “What is the subtext of the question people ask about the love scenes?” Jake's answer: “I want to ask people 'Why do you ask? What are you feeling?'” Q: What do you like to think happened to Ennis at the end of the movie? Jake's answer: “I like to think that Ennis meets Jack's son.”

That last one made me think. The picture below is for Ruby with love.


Includes pictures from IHJ.