Who played in brokeback mountain

2005’s Brokeback Mountain is one of the most culturally significant LGBTQ+ movies in history, and it also featured a star-studded cast of actors who became Hollywood A-listers over the years.

Directed by Ang Lee and based on a 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain was set in the 1960s and told a story of forbidden love between two cowboys: Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). Throughout the film, Ennis and Jack’s intense-but-reluctant relationship ends up having several repercussions on the people in their lives.

LGBTQ+ stories in mainstream media are much more common in 2022. Back in 2005, though, it seemed unimaginable that a queer movie could be so well-received by critics and audiences. Against the odds, Brokeback Mountain was nominated for a whopping eight Academy Awards, including the highly-coveted Best Picture award. The film ultimately won three Oscars – Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), and Best Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla) – and an outcry took place when it didn’t win Best Picture over Crash.

In hindsight, Brokeback Mountain featured some of the most talented and famous actors in Hollywood. However, most of these stars were still up-and-coming actors when they worked in this movie – which makes their post-Brokeback Mountain trajectory so fascinating.

Scroll through to find out what the cast of Brokeback Mountain has been up to since working on the 2005 film.

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee comes an epic American love story, Brokeback Mountain, the winner of the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture at 2005's Venice International Film Festival. The film is based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and adapted for the screen by the team of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Set against the sweeping vistas of Wyoming and Texas, the film tells the story of two young men – a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy – who meet in the summer of 1963, and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys, and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love.

Early one morning in Signal, Wyoming, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet while lining up for employment with local rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). The world which Ennis and Jack have been born into is at once changing rapidly and yet scarcely evolving. Both young men seem certain of their set places in the heartland – obtaining steady work, marrying, and raising a family – and yet hunger for something beyond what they can articulate. When Aguirre dispatches them to work as sheepherders up on the majestic Brokeback Mountain, they gravitate towards camaraderie and then a deeper intimacy.

At summer's end, the two must come down from Brokeback and part ways. Remaining in Wyoming, Ennis weds his sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams), with whom he will have two daughters as he ekes out a living. Jack, in Texas, catches the eye of rodeo queen Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). Their courtship and marriage result in a son, as well as jobs in her father's business.

Four years pass. One day, Alma brings Ennis a postcard from Jack, who is en route to visit Wyoming. Ennis waits expectantly for his friend, and when Jack at last arrives, in just one moment it is clear that the passage of time has only strengthened the men's attachment. In the years that follow, Ennis and Jack struggle to keep their secret bond alive. They meet up several times annually. Even when they are apart, they face the eternal questions of fidelity, commitment, and trust. Ultimately, the one constant in their lives is a force of nature – love.

• Heath Ledger

• Jake Gyllenhaal

• Linda Cardellini

• Anna Faris

• Anne Hathaway

• Michelle Williams

• Randy Quaid

• Kate Mara

• Ang Lee

• Larry McMurtry

• Diana Ossana

• Annie Proulx

• James Schamus

• William Pohlad

• Michael Hausman

• Scott Ferguson

• Rodrigo Prieto A.S.C., A.M.C.

• Judy Becker

• Geraldine Peroni

• Dylan Tichenor

• Gustavo Santaolalla

• Marit Allen

Seventeen years after the release of Academy Award–winning “Brokeback Mountain,” star Jake Gyllenhaal is revisiting its neo-Western legacy.

Gyllenhaal played cowboy Jack Twist, who starts a secret, decades-long affair with ranchhand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), despite them both having wives at home, portrayed by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams.

In a new video interview with Vanity Fair, Gyllenhaal looked back on the legacy of “Brokeback Mountain” almost two decades after its 2005 release.

“The relationship between me and Heath while we were making this movie was something that was based on a profound love for a lot of people that we knew and were raised by in our lives, a deep respect for their love and their relationship,” Gyllenhaal said.

The “Ambulance” actor added, “There were many jokes being made about the movie, or poking fun at, things like that. And [Ledger’s] consummate devotion to how serious and important the relationship between these two characters was — it showed me how devoted he was as an actor and how devoted we both were to the story and the movie.”

Gyllenhaal also shared a moment that he often looks back on when it came to “Brokeback” reception.

“Heath and I were at a Q&A at the Aero Theatre in Los Angeles, and I remember us going to dinner while the movie was screening. And I remember us joking backstage, and I remember us coming on to the stage in a humorous mode because we were just having fun with each other,” Gyllenhaal said. “We sat down, the lights came up, and a man stood up — and the movie had been out for a week and a half — and he said, ‘I just want to say, this is my 11th time seeing this movie, and I can’t stop watching it, and I just want to thank you all for making it.’ And I thought, 11 times in 10 days.”

The “Nocturnal Animals” star continued, “I remember the wash of that over us. We were poking fun at each other before we go on, and then the profound realization of — the profundity of this thing washed over us. It happens constantly to this day, and I can’t really express how proud I am of it.”

Gyllenhaal has previously spoken out about Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” helping to de-stigmatize straight male actors playing queer characters. The actor also revealed in 2019 that late co-star Ledger refused to let people he encountered get away with making homophobic “Brokeback” jokes. Ledger reportedly even turned down presenting at the 2007 Oscars because of quips about the film’s love story.

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