Making 2005’s Brokeback Mountain alongside Heath Ledger “showed me, I believe, how committed he was as an actor,” Jake Gyllenhaal said.

Jake Gyllenhaal is reminiscing about his time on the set of Brokeback Mountain with late costar Heather Ledger in 2005.

Gyllenhaal, 41, reminisced on his career in a video posted by Vanity Fair on Friday, including details of his friendship with Ledger, who died in 2008 at the age of 28, while working on the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain.

“You know, I believe the bond between me and Heath while we were doing this movie was built on a tremendous love for a lot of people we knew and were raised by in our life, and a deep respect for their love and their partnership,” Gyllenhaal added.

He and Ledger portray a cowboy and a ranch worker who have a long-distance romantic engagement. According to Vanity Fair, Gyllenhaal loved Ledger’s approach to the film’s subject matter and portrayal of two guys in love and their confusing affections for one another.

“One of the things I remember about the post-production process after the film came out is Heath never wanting to make a joke,” the Ambulance actor remarked. “Even as far as I can tell, culturally, there were a lot of jokes about the movie or mockery of it. And his unwavering commitment to the seriousness and importance of the connection between these two individuals.”

He went on to say, “It demonstrated to me, I believe, how dedicated he was as an actor and how committed he and I were to the tale in the film. And I can say that the movie provided us with a really profound and enjoyable experience.”

Gyllenhaal claimed that they shot Brokeback Mountain over the course of three weeks, and that they would get up every morning to make coffee, have breakfast, and go to set.

“It’s a filmmaking style that I wish we did more of,” he remarked, “where we all just powwowed and lived together in a place.”

Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, also stars Randy Quaid, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway. The film received eight Oscar nominations, winning three of them: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

Gyllenhaal reflected on the overall success of Brokeback Mountain, telling Vanity Fair, “There is a lot to say about this film. There’s even more to say about my own experience with it.”

“There’s even more for me to say about how people reacted to it, what it meant, and what happens when you understand, especially as a performer, that something has nothing to do with you,” he concluded.

Storytelling, according to Gyllenhaal, has “power beyond anything you believe you have control over or a part of,” saying that once a narrative like Brokeback Mountain “goes out into the world, it becomes everyone else’s.”

“So, you just have a limited time with it, and it’s my duty and honour to do it, and then it’s everyone else’s, and it’s no longer mine,” he explained. “And no picture I’ve ever worked on has demonstrated it to me more than Brokeback Mountain.”