After 20 years, the film Brokeback Mountain still has a lasting effect on audiences.
Michelle Williams recently stopped by Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen to promote her new show, Dying for Sex, when host Andy Cohen spoke about what the film means to him.
“May I gush to you about what an important movie Brokeback Mountain was to me and it is still I think in my top two movies of all time. Did you realize at the time that you were making that, what a profound impact it was going to have on people?” he asked Williams, to which she responded, “Yes, because people were so open about it.”
Williams continued, “I just remember doing the junket and you don’t get an opportunity to see a lot of grown men cry. That was the moment that I think we all knew that it was going to be special to people.”
The 2005 film followed the secret love affair between Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) over the course of 20 years. Williams and Anne Hathaway played their wives.
The film won three Oscars, including for best director, best adapted screenplay and best original score. Notably missing, though, was a win for best picture, which instead went to Crash, which starred Jennifer Esposito, Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock.
Cohen noted how he was “very upset” over the film losing best picture, “I mean, Crash? Is that what won?” Williams quipped, “I mean, what was Crash?”
“Who’s talking about Crash right now?” Cohen then questioned.
Brokeback Mountain‘s director, Ang Lee, revealed last year that he was told by a stage manager to stay backstage at the Oscars because it was expected that his film would win the golden statue.
“I got my award, which was [second to] last to the big one, and I was walking off the stage, they called me down, and said, ‘Stay here. That’s your mark. Everybody assumes you will win, so stay at that mark,’” he said. “Right next to the stage was the curtain. The next was best picture. ‘Stay here, just stay here.’ I saw Jack Nicholson, his profile, he opened the envelope, and I go, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ It took like 10 seconds before he announced, and then he went, ‘Crash.’”
Lee was also asked if he thought the film lost because of the discrimination against a gay love story, to which he replied, “I think so, yeah.”
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