I think it may prove tough for Jake to be the representative of both Jack and Ennis going forward....the Brokeback poster, and the quotes, and the whole story have become a cultural landmark...and now Jake is left alone to represent it.
And Jake will have more than that to represent in Heath's absence. Did you read the little snippet on Jake that was in a news story? I found it last night just scrolling through the new items. I had been wondering how things have been for him, for I know they were close, besides being godfather to Matilda. Just in case you didn't see it, here it is:
JAKE Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger's best friend and Matilda's godfather, has been left to grieve on his own and has not been seen since the actor's death. According to TMZ, people on the set of his new film, Brothers, are helping the star keep it that way as he is too distressed to talk to media.
Gyllenhaal is currently filming in New Mexico and has been holed up in the studio. There are no plans to stop the film's production to give Jake time to fly to New York to be with Michelle Williams.
The set has been closed to non-crew members and extra security has been hired to keep photographers at bay and to ensure the actor's privacy, according to TMZ.
Now that two-year-old Matilda is left to grow up without her doting father, the responsibility to keep Heath Ledger's memory alive falls partly on her famous godfather, Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jake, Heath and Matilda's mom Michelle Williams, bonded on the set of their Academy Award-winning hit Brokeback Mountain, for which they all received Oscar nominations.
"Heath and I are best friends now making the film was very intense for us," said Jake, 27, who played Heath's sheep-herding love interest in the Blockbuster hit. He described being Matilda's godfather as "an amazing honor," he told Page Six.
"I remember being in rehearsal, and the two of them had googly eyes with each other," he has said of the romance between Matilda's parents.
Here's an excerpt I found very moving from a good article by James Barron in the 1/23 NY Times:
In a recent interview with WJW-TV, a Fox affiliate in Cleveland, about “I’m Not There,” in which he was one of several actors playing the music legend Bob Dylan, Mr. Ledger struck a philosophical note. He responded to a question about how having a child had changed his life:
“You’re forced into, kind of, respecting yourself more,” he said. “You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess. I think you also look at death differently. It’s like a Catch-22: I feel good about dying now because I feel like I’m alive in her, you know, but at the same hand, you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the rest of her life.”
I watched BBM last night. We have a dear houseguest in who had never seen it and, because of the news, asked if we could watch it. The whole while I watched, loving it as usual in the usual way, I was also thinking, "he'll never laugh like that again; he'll run those beautiful long fingers over a script or an animal's flank or a lover's body like that again". And in the drive-in scene, when Alma takes Ennis's hand from where it is draped around her shoulder, bringing it down to her stomach to feel the baby moving, I couldn't help but think of him feeling the movements of his own child through his lover's skin--the child he won't hold again--or any future child he might have had. I didn't make a distraction as we sat in the darkened room and watched, but the tears just sprouted out and rolled.
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I think it may prove tough for Jake to be the representative of both Jack and Ennis going forward....the Brokeback poster, and the quotes, and the whole story have become a cultural landmark...and now Jake is left alone to represent it.
And Jake will have more than that to represent in Heath's absence. Did you read the little snippet on Jake that was in a news story? I found it last night just scrolling through the new items. I had been wondering how things have been for him, for I know they were close, besides being godfather to Matilda. Just in case you didn't see it, here it is:
Here's an excerpt I found very moving from a good article by James Barron in the 1/23 NY Times:
I watched BBM last night. We have a dear houseguest in who had never seen it and, because of the news, asked if we could watch it. The whole while I watched, loving it as usual in the usual way, I was also thinking, "he'll never laugh like that again; he'll run those beautiful long fingers over a script or an animal's flank or a lover's body like that again". And in the drive-in scene, when Alma takes Ennis's hand from where it is draped around her shoulder, bringing it down to her stomach to feel the baby moving, I couldn't help but think of him feeling the movements of his own child through his lover's skin--the child he won't hold again--or any future child he might have had. I didn't make a distraction as we sat in the darkened room and watched, but the tears just sprouted out and rolled.