For Jake Gyllenhaal playing gay in Brokeback Mountain was just natural

It’s been 10 years since Brokeback Mountain was released and it made a huge difference for the LGBT community. The impact of the movie was huge, and the cast was fascinated by the story. While Heath Ledger took the story seriously, and did not accept any joke on it, Jake Gyllenhaal was more laid back. He previously declared that homosexuality was not something strange to him. His godfathers were a gay couple.

Recently he discussed again his career and the movie where he played the role of a gay cowboy. Once again, he highlighted how natural homosexuality was for him and how the struggle with identity is an issue beyond mere sexuality.

“I had been brought up in an elementary school where, my first few grades, I remember being specifically told that my teachers were gay. I was just that age and that was just how it was, and my parents were very… you know, that’s how I was raised. Like super-progressive. And so it’s just something I took for granted, weirdly. At the time. I think, now, younger generations do take that for granted in a lot of ways. I don’t think that takes away from the struggle of identity and what that is. But the struggle for identity is everybody’s struggle. No matter what it is,” Jake Gyllenhaal said.

For Gyllenhaal, the challenge was not portraying a gay man, but rather accommodating with the filming set and struggling to make a perfect role. He played his role without any preconceptions, “my closest family members, my godfathers, were a gay couple, so it was something I just inherently had no prejudice about,” the charming actor said. And when it came to love scenes between him and Heath, he worried more about his co-star:

“When this came up, to tell you the truth, I questioned… I was like, ‘I wonder if Heath can pull this off?’ This is a very, very intense [role]. It’s the most critical role in a lot of ways in this film, to really push you through to the end and show that this relationship is really something meaningful. I thought, ‘Could he?’ Then we started to work together and I was just [convinced].”