Heath Ledger Refused To Do This At The Oscars After 'Brokeback Mountain'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Robin and Kit podcast. This is
really interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
As I was saying, I've been looking at old films
to see if they stand up, Like, for example, Princess Briane.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I don't care what anyone says. It's still great.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I mean, it's so kind of daggy eighties, but it's
still hilarious.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
What about the what's in that? Is it the rats
of unusual? Rodents of unusual? Do they look fake?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh? Yeah, but that's why it's so bad, okay.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Whereas Beetlejuice one, it's the eighties fashion I can't get past.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
That's where you brought.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
The line please, And I watched it so that I
could watch Beetle Beetlejuice two, which was good. So it
must be because I've been googling that that my phone
has come up with two really interesting movie facts that
I wanted to share with you. The first involves Broke
Back Mountain. Now, of course, that was a hit starring
Heath Ledger and Jake Gillenhall, who at the time in

(00:54):
two thousand and seven, when there wasn't legal gay marriage
even in the US, it was pretty controversial because it
was about two cowboys in the kind of Midwest of
America who fell in love and created iconic lines like
this one.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I wish I knew how to quit you. That's been
used like a million times since that show, Isn't it
absolutely well people just say it to but.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I just do just looking at a milkshake.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
I wish I knew how to quit you.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, it's interesting that it's kind of become with that
funny tone because back in the day, both He's Ledger
and Jake gillen Hall were asked to present at the Oscars,
which was a really big deal because Broke Back Mountain
was one of those big iconic films and everyone was
talking about it. But the organizer of the Oscars required
them to make a joke in the opening sequence about

(01:46):
the attraction between two men on the big screen, and
Jake gillen Hall was like, yeah, well, let's drawing attention
to the film. Sure, I'll do it, and he Ledger said, no,
I won't. This isn't funny. Oh wow, okay, and I'm
not going to take the mickey out of something that
we should be talking about a lot, right, So I
know he was.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
A pain in the house for both of us when
we interviewed him back in the day.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
It was fine for me, it was.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Bad for me. He just wanted to bounce the ball.
I was trying to talk to him.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
But he had such a high moral compass, and he
turned down the honor of hosting it the Oscars because
he was like, do you want to do.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Mickey out in the film?

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Okay? And we were sure that it's not because he
actually just didn't think it was funny. No.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, they didn't tell him what it was.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
They just said they wanted to take a comedic take
on it, and he was like, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
It was a pretty It was a massive move, wasn't it.
For two sort of fairly much o guys both straight
to go, yeah, okay, we're going to do this.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
And there was a lot of controversy about whether they
should have used gay actors. But I need to get
those conversations because it's like, you're an actor, you're supposed
to be in someone else's life.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
He can pretend to be everything, you can.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Pretend to be everything. Okay. So that's the first one.
The second one is fascinating as well.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
One of the most iconic lines from Forest Gump, which
went on to win heaps of oscars, is this one.
And it turns out that they had spent so much
money on creating Forest Gump that the directors and the
producers decided that they were going to cut the whole
sequence of Tom Hank's running across America.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Ah. Now, that part.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Became huge in terms of, you know, because it required
heaps of different locations as he was seen around running
along country roads. And it also required a significant amount
of time because his beard had to grow.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Right, was that a real beard?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, So they were saying, you know, because the idea
was that he just didn't stop running, and he kept
running till he you know, hit the other side. Anyway,
they said, no, we're going to cut it, and Tom
Hanks said, no.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I'll pay for it.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Okay, So he paid for it out of his own
pocket because he believed in the film so much. Yeah,
mind you, he did take a percentage of the profits.
And I think it's safe to say that Forest Gump
is in our top ten films of all time and
has made so much money.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Worth it worth that was worth it, but good investment.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
It wasn't as huge as he is now when he
did Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump was one of the big
breakout roles for him up until.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, it was the breakout I reckon.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, because up until then he'd done like that what's
that Daryl Hannah Mermaid thing?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, yeah, splash splash, and he was big. Yeah, he
was kind of comedic, really comedic.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, And this gave him the role of a lifetime
he won in Oscar.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
That's another thing that's been quoted one thousand. Anytime like
you see someone like running for the bus, you just
can't anyone jogging, you just can't help, but yell it out.
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