Breaking Away

Jake Gyllenhaal wishes people would stop calling Brokeback Mountain the “gay cowboy movie.”

“For people who say it’s the gay cowboy movie, I say it’s the Ang Lee movie about two cowboys who fall in love,” Gyllenhaal said at a press conference in Los Angeles. Gyllenhaal sat at a table with Brokeback director Ang Lee, and while both seemed weary of repetitive questions, they discussed the project eagerly.

“When I was 17-years-old and someone told me about this script, I said absolutely no way,” Gyllenhaal said. “It was presented to me as the ‘gay cowboy movie,’ and I just said no. But I have grown, as I think we all have grown, and we have such a different mentality now. It’s really just a beautiful story.”

Lee, known for Academy favorites Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, remained quiet, letting the actor field most of the questions. He does, however, take issue with the idea that Brokeback is strictly a gay movie.

“I don’t think it’s right to make it for one community,” Lee said. “Just because [a lot of the audience] is gay, doesn’t mean they all think alike. There have been gay people who have left the movie crying, there have been others who were disappointed – they wanted to see more in the love scene.”

Gyllenhaal is surprisingly nonchalant about the love scenes he and Heath Ledger shared, which, for the curious, are filmed at such obscure angles and shadows that you see almost nothing.

“It’s different [with a man], obviously, but there’s also a weird sense when you’re on a set, there’s definitely a performance aspect to it.”

Both Gyllenhaal and Lee emphasized that Brokeback Mountain is, above all, a love story, though they are reluctant to pigeon-hole the film into a specific genre.

“The story I think, on its own, carries a real weight,” Gyllenhaal said. “There is a real power to it. Who it’s a story for, I don’t know, but it’s definitely affecting people.”