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Issue 1003
March 11, 2008
Heath Ledger Quoted

Advocate, I am passing this quote from Attitude magazine, Vol.1 No. 141, page 41 on in defense of Heath Ledger's caring about gay people or his bravery in playing Ennis: On kissing Jake? "Look I totally understand why this is an issue," he says, "why people are interested in me and Jake kissing. It is just interesting because it is. And do you know what? on set we couldn't have been more 'whatever' about it. We had to represent the characters' intense passion and to a certain extent that means you have to get passionate about it. Fuck it. What we're talking about is kissing another human being. There are, like, millions of worse things that I can think of doing in my life than kissing Jake." "Okay, do you know what? The effects of playing gay? I have no stake in those things," he asserts. "If it was in fact surrounded by risk, then that risk would probably make me want to do the part more. If I never get another part in another movie after doing Brokeback Mountain because I chose to play a gay character in it, then fuck Hollywood. Fuck it, you know? Basically I don't want to be part of an industry that doesn't give people roles because they chose to play character. I just don't."

Michael Smith
Houston, Texas
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