FILM · 2005 · CANADA
Brokeback Mountain
- Directed by
- Ang Lee
- Runtime
- 134 min
- Studio
- Focus Features, River Road Entertainment, Alberta Film Entertainment
25 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (25)
- #001
Heath Ledger was initially unsure about taking the role, but his girlfriend at the time, Naomi Watts, encouraged him to accept it right after reading the script. After reading it, Ledger said he would fly to Taiwan to meet Ang Lee and be hired for the part.
- #002
Jake Gyllenhaal is the godfather of Matilda Ledger, the daughter of his co-star Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger.
- #003
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams met and fell in love on the set of this film. Shortly before its premiere, she gave birth to their daughter, Matilda Ledger. They separated in the fall of 2007, shortly before Ledger's sudden death in January 2008.
- #004
Because Heath Ledger had grown up on farms in Western Australia, he refused to attend the month-long cowboy camp that was organized. Jake Gyllenhaal, however, had to attend because he needed the "roughing up."
- #005
Asked whether he had any fear about playing a gay man, Heath Ledger said he was not afraid of the role, only that he was not mature enough to do it justice.
- #006
At the Oscars, Heath Ledger firmly shut down any homophobic jokes because he felt they belittled a truly touching love story.
- #007
Author Annie Proulx sent both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger an original, signed copy of her story. When she signed Gyllenhaal's copy she wrote "To Jake…", but when she signed the copy she planned to give Ledger she wrote "To Ennis". After writing her personal message she realized what she had done and decided to leave it as it was. At a special screening at the Arclight in Hollywood, California, she felt Heath Ledger truly was Ennis. She left the signed copy that way because she felt the actor represented Ennis in every way she had imagined him.
- #008
When Ennis finds Jack's and his own shirts hanging together in Jack's childhood closet, Jack had arranged them so that Jack's blue shirt was visible first and Ennis's light-colored plaid shirt was tucked inside it. In the end, when Ennis takes both shirts home to hang in his own closet, they are reversed, so that Jack's shirt is inside Ennis's. According to screenwriter Diana Ossana, changing the order of the shirts was Heath Ledger's idea.
- #009
According to producer James Schamus, the film was made so cheaply that it recouped its cost in its first week of limited release.
- #010
According to reports, Heath Ledger nearly broke his co-star Jake Gyllenhaal's nose while filming a kissing scene.
- #011
On the night of the 2006 Oscars, Ang Lee candidly expressed behind the scenes his disappointment that the film did not win Best Picture even though he himself won Best Director. Lee added that he was especially sorry Heath Ledger did not win Best Actor, since he was certain Ledger had given one of the best screen performances of all time.
- #012
During its opening weekend (shown in only five theaters in the US), the film broke the record for the highest per-screen gross of any non-animated film in history.
- #013
Michelle Williams asked the two male leads to kiss in front of her to help her reach the right emotional point for her character, Alma. Since she was in a real-life relationship with Ledger, she felt it would help her portray such a thing. She had to provoke both men because their first few attempts were too half-hearted for her liking.
- #014
Ang Lee constantly struggled with the sheep during filming. Apparently the sheep would only drink from ponds and dams, not from running water. Ang spent all day trying to get them to drink from a stream, but they refused. He had to give up on the shot. American sheep also carry a bacterium or virus that Canadian sheep do not. The scene in which the film's two flocks of sheep become mixed had some nightmarish real-life parallels, because the Canadian government had explicitly warned them of dire consequences if they caused any disease to spread to native animals of that kind south of the border.
- #015
Universal made the rare decision to release the film on DVD while it was still playing in theaters. It was also the first film to be released on DVD and downloaded on the same day.
- #016
The casting director, who feared Anne Hathaway would work against him during auditions despite her roles in the R-rated Havoc (2005), including brief nude and sex scenes, introduced her to Ang Lee as a New York City Broadway actor. Ang Lee had not seen any of Anne's or Michelle Williams's previous work before the auditions and later cast them in the film.
- #017
The film's poster was deliberately designed to resemble that of another romantic epic, Titanic (1997).
- #018
During auditions, Anne Hathaway lied about being good with horses. When she was told she had won the role, Hathaway hurriedly began two months of riding lessons.
- #019
At the Oscars, there was an audible gasp when presenter Jack Nicholson read Crash (2004) as 2005's Best Picture instead of this far more favored film. Nicholson admitted he was shocked, since he himself had voted for Ang Lee's film, and notoriously mouthed "Whoa" after the announcement. Many attributed the loss to the Academy not wanting to give the Oscar to a film about a gay couple and choosing the "safe" option, Crash (2004), instead.
- #020
In several interviews, Ang Lee said that when Michelle Williams had to shoot the scene in which her character is devastated to discover her husband's relationship with another man, she insisted that Heath Ledger (her on-screen and off-screen love interest) and Jake Gyllenhaal intensify their kissing.
- #021
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were already friends before they began filming Brokeback Mountain.
- #022
In the scene where Ennis ducks into an alley to be sick, Heath Ledger unexpectedly punched a wall and nearly broke his hand.
- #023
There were 75 visual effects shots created for Brokeback Mountain by the Canadian company Buzz Image Group. Fifteen of them were CGI sheep. The film required around 2,500 sheep, but there were only seven hundred sheep on set, which required additional woolly creations. Sky replacements, set extensions, removals and the hail in the hailstorm were also created for the film.
- #024
Although Anne Hathaway learned how to do the race, the insurance company insisted that a stunt performer appear in the film.
- #025
There is a nude scene in which Heath Ledger jumps into a lake. Ang Lee intended to edit out the actual frontal nudity in the film, but a paparazzo photographed Ledger with a digital camera. The photographs were published on the internet and in some press outlets. The film features a stunt performer jumping from a rock into the lake for Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
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