- Michelle Williams had a brief take about her movie Brokeback Mountain losing Best Picture at the 2006 Oscars
- The award that year went to Crash, but Brokeback Mountain did score three wins: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score
- The actress has previously admitted that her Best Supporting Actress nomination for the film led to an “unnerving” point in her career
Michelle Williams still has some feelings about her movie Brokeback Mountain losing Best Picture at the 2006 Oscars.
The 44-year-old Dying for Sex actress discussed the enduring impact of the tragic gay love story and its controversial Best Picture loss to Crash during a Thursday, April 3, appearance on Watch What Happens Live.
Host Andy Cohen told Williams that the 2005 movie was likely “still in my top two movies of all time” and added that he was “very upset about the Best Picture loss.”
“I mean, what was Crash?” Williams coyly asked about the film that ultimately took home the Academy Award. Cohen replied by implying that the winning picture didn’t have the longevity of Brokeback Mountain as it wasn’t still sparking conversations all these years later.
Cohen also asked Williams if she was aware that the film would have such “a profound impact” before its premiere. She replied affirmatively.
“People were so open about it,” she said. “I just remember doing the junket. You know, you don’t really get an opportunity to see a lot of grown men cry. That was the moment that I think that we all knew it was going to be special to people.”
Brokeback Mountain amassed eight nominations at the 2006 Oscars, including Best Picture. Williams snagged a Best Supporting Actress nod, Heath Ledger was in the running for Best Actor and Jake Gyllenhaal was up for Best Supporting Actor. Anne Hathaway also starred.
When the night was over, the cast and crew went home with three Oscars: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.
Williams has previously reflected on the impact of her Oscar nomination, her first of five to date, for the film.
While appearing on Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist in April 2023, she said that the recognition left her feeling “a little bit frozen for a moment, creatively.”
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“It was really unnerving after that,” she admitted. “Like, what do you do? What do you do next?”
She added that the amount of attention that she was receiving “can be sort of destabilizing.” It also caused pressure to perform. “Now it feels like, ‘Well, people are watching. What if I make a mistake?’ That’s really scary. What would happen to me?” she explained.
In 2020, Gyllenhaal shared his own story about the Oscars and Brokeback Mountain. He told Another Man magazine that Ledger, who died in 2008, refused to present at the 2007 ceremony due to a joke that they wanted to make about the movie.
“I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it,” he recalled. “I was sort of at the time, ‘Oh, okay … whatever.’ I’m always like, ‘It’s all in good fun.’ And Heath said, ‘It’s not a joke to me — I don’t want to make any jokes about it.’ ”
He continued, saying, “That’s the thing I loved about Heath. He would never joke. Someone wanted to make a joke about the story or whatever, he was like, ‘No. This is about love. Like, that’s it, man. Like, no.’ ”
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