‘Brokeback Mountain:’ Matt Damon And Joaquin Phoenix Were Originally Courted For Leading Roles

“Brokeback Mountain” is viewed as a masterpiece for filmmaker Ang Lee. Nominated for countless awards, and winning three Oscars, the film about two men falling in love in the American West is looked at today as a truly special piece of filmmaking. So, when we hear from a creator involved in the film, and she talks about how the film struggled to get produced and almost looked very different, it’s almost mind-boggling.

At a recent event, ‘Brokeback’ screenwriter Diana Ossana took part in a Q&A about the film. During her discussion, she brought up how getting the film produced was an 8-year saga, which included many filmmakers being courted but not committing, and even completely different actors in the roles that eventually went to Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Nobody would commit,” Ossana said. “We sent it to Edward Norton [to direct] and Joel Schumacher and dozens of people and they all came back saying they loved it but no one would commit. They didn’t give us any real excuse why they wouldn’t. I guess they saw it as too difficult.”

She goes to on talk about how an early iteration of the film included director Gus Van Sant, with Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix starring. While we don’t know exactly when this iteration was happening, around the time of the film’s production, Damon would have been coming off “The Bourne Identity” and “Ocean’s Eleven.” Perhaps, with his big-budget films on the horizon, he wasn’t ready to commit to the decidedly lower-budgeted film.

Joaquin Phoenix, on the other hand, was in a bit of a career transition. At the time of “Brokeback Mountain,” Phoenix had been coming off his role in “Gladiator” and “Signs.” He was at the tail end of his attempt at big-budget, leading man status and on the cusp of his current persona, which is…something. ‘Brokeback’ would have given him that leap into the next stage of his acting career, however, it might have meant that we wouldn’t have gotten his Academy Award-nominated performance in “Walk the Line.”

Also, it’s hard to imagine how different “Brokeback Mountain” would be if Ang Lee didn’t have his hands all over it. Gus Van Sant, Joel Schumacher, and Edward Norton are all competent filmmakers (we’ll forgive Schumacher for those ‘Batman’ slip-ups), but Ang Lee was able to bring something that arguably no other director would have brought to the project. And let’s not forget that this was his next film after the abysmal “Hulk” film from 2003. Since ‘Brokeback,’ Lee has been riding a wave of critical acclaim and success.

Ultimately, Lee was selected as the filmmaker, and Ledger and Gyllenhaal were the stars. However, even picking those two actors came with its own problems. “Nobody wanted Heath but me and [co-writer] Larry [McMurtry]. The studio felt he wasn’t macho enough,” explained Ossana.

After hearing these stories, it sounds like we should count our blessings that the “Brokeback Mountain” that we know and love was even released.