Ten years after their romantic film "Brokeback Mountain", actor Jake Gyllenhaal remembers his co-star Heath Ledger as someone, who was beyond his years as a human being.
Directed by Ang Lee, the film depicted the emotional but tragic love story between two cowboys (Gyllenhaal and Ledger) in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
Ledger died of accidental overdose of prescription drugs in 2008. He was 28.
Gyllenhaal, 34, said he always admired Ledger, who was his friend even before the movie happened, and found him extraordinary, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"Heath was always somebody who I admired. He was way beyond his years as a human, in a way. I wasn't quite sure where he came from.
"I mean, I know he's from Perth, but I wasn't really quite sure where he came from, and I think that's the feeling most people got when they were around him and why he was so extraordinary. And when that opportunity came, I was a young actor. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm in'," Gyllenhaal said.
The actor added that a lot was said about him choosing the movie but he never had any doubt his choice.
"I know a lot has been made of the choice to do it, but it just didn't seem like something that was scary to me. You know, it was binding, because sometimes a lot of that character is very specifically the more overtly gay character of the two.
"The one who's struggling with it less. And I didn't really realize that. And that was an interesting journey for me, giving into that idea. Being the one who tries to push the relationship," Gyllenhaal said.
A lot has changed in the depiction of same sex love in Hollywood since "Brokeback Mountain" but the film remains a landmark in its sensitive handling of the subject at that time.
"It's one of the most beautiful scripts I've ever read, and it was Ang Lee, and at the time Heath [Ledger] was a friend of mine - before we even shot the movie - and always sort of alluring to me," Gyllenhaal recalled.
