Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ryan Phillippe were among the actors who turned down roles in Brokeback Mountain, the gay romance that catapulted Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal to stardom.
I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe.
Gus Van Sant, the director who has frequently collaborated with Damon, revealed in an interview with IndieWire that the film – about two two men hired to herd sheep in Wyoming – proved strikingly challenging to cast.
“I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out.