Gyllenhaal's gamble
Gyllenhaal first became aware of Brokeback when Gus Van Sant was attached to direct, but he wanted nothing to do with it. ''I was like, No way!'' says Gyllenhaal, splayed out on his hotel room couch, having just flown into L.A. for Jarhead's opening weekend. ''At 18 years old, it's not something you want to be involved in. Five years later I read the script knowing Ang was directing and I just had to do it.''
Gyllenhaal was coming off The Day After Tomorrow and had just established his box office bankability. Surprisingly, he approached the risks involved with jeopardizing his mainstream mojo almost like an adrenaline junkie looking for a danger fix. ''It's not like it didn't go through my mind that people were going to have big problems with it,'' he says. ''But sometimes something comes along and I just lock on to it and say, 'Take me for the ride! That gives me oxygen to breathe!' I didn't really think, 'Oh, I'm going to have to make out with Heath Ledger.'''
NEXT PAGE: Ledger's potential
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