Put another one in his "good guy" ledger.
Heath Ledger refused to present an award at the 2007 Oscars because of a "Brokeback Mountain" joke in the script, his costar in the 2005 film Jake Gyllenhaal told fashion magazine Another Man.
"I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it," Gyllenhaal said. "And Heath refused."
Gyllenhaal, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "Brokeback" at the previous year's show, added that more than a decade ago, he'd taken it less seriously than Ledger.
"I was sort of at the time, 'Oh, okay ... whatever.' I'm always like: it's all in good fun," Gyllenhaal told Another Man. "And Heath said, 'It's not a joke to me _ I don't want to make any jokes about it.'"
"Brokeback," directed by Ang Lee, was nominated for eight Oscars at the 2006 show, with Ledger earning a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar. Lee won Best Director.
Gyllenhaal also said in the interview that he'd never watched the movie that helped launch him to stardom.
"There are things you're chosen for _ a quality, an essence _ and Ang did that," Gyllenhaal said. "And it's still a mystery to me. And something that Heath and I shared: that it was a mystery to us at the time."
