He recently said of the film, "I thought it would be an arthouse film with a very small audience. I was nervous about the subject matter hitting the shopping mall, and I was surprised at its success. I think it has something to do with the fact that it's a poignant love story."

Brokeback Mountain starred two of the sexiest actors around at the time, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, and had explicit gay sex scenes between the two men - a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy - who unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love.

Jake Gyllenhaal once revealed that he never was attracted to fellow males. However, he also said that he wouldn't be afraid if such an attraction would ever knock on his door. Such a frank admission from a major Hollywood star reflects his honest personality. He has done extraordinary work in the entertainment industry during his career and he has thousands of fans worldwide who admire his rich filmography, containing movies of almost all genres.

Tragically Heath Ledger died three years after the movie was made, in January 2008 from an accidental intoxication from prescription drugs, just as his career was really taking off. His co-star Jake Gyllenhaal spoke with OutUK correspondent Ron Dicker during those times of the movie awards whilst they were at the Toronto Film Festival.

Gyllenhaal, 24, is best known for the blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow and for playing Jennifer Aniston's WalMart paramour in The Good Girl. He has puppy-dog blue eyes, women seem to like him -- including on/off girlfriend at the time the movie was made Kirsten Dunst -- and he likes women.

"In every creative thing, I have an initial instinctual response," Gyllenhaal says in a hotel room during the Toronto festival. "When I read this and knowing Ang Lee was going to make it, I thought I had to do it. Then I thought about it some more, but I had no fear about it."

As it unfolded in the E. Annie Proulx short story on which the movie is based, Gyllenhaal and Ledger meet macho outside a rancher's office in 1960s Wyoming, wearing Marlboro attitude and denim. They get summer jobs as sheep herders and their silent attraction for each other smoulders in the fresh mountain air.

Sure, the pivotal sex scene was awkward. But don't bother asking Gyllenhaal to recount details.

"Heath says he can't remember and in a way I can't remember either," he says.

Rarely does an openly gay actor play a straight romantic lead. It is a de-facto no-no in the mainstream. Asked to provide his take on one of Hollywood's nagging double standards, Gyllenhaal says, "That is probably not for me to answer. It goes on in other things, too ... Your private life should be your own. I think it's the job of any actor to stay beneath your face, your work and your personality. That way people will believe you in every character you play."

Although it is Ledger who is being talked up for awards after the film won Venice's Golden Lion top prize, Gyllenhaal provides the story's more obvious emotional centre. Both men pursue conventional lives by marrying and having children. The softer Gyllenhaal has one toe of his boot peeking out of the closet. He seeks paid male companionship south of the border and has other dalliances. The tension of desire stays coiled in Heath Ledger's jaw throughout the movie.

The pair's passion evolves into a "Same Time, Next Year" rendezvous in the woods. It's a furlough from society's expectations on the pretence of a fishing trip.

"I don't believe necessarily that these two characters are gay," Gyllenhaal says. "They have a homosexual relationship but I don't know if they're gay."

Reminded that Jack constantly seeks relationships with men, the actor backs off.

"I think that's true in the story but that's not how I thought about it," he continues. "I think he's just somebody who's dying for that same connection, like when we look for somebody who looks likes the person we just broke up with when they've broken our heart. He's looking for someone who feels the same, like when Ennis turns his wife around and has sex like he would with Jack."

Gyllenhaal stares out at the smog draping Toronto in a dying summer heat wave. "You could argue that my character is openly gay. I feel like he's having a more literal response to the love affair."

Asked if perhaps everyone is bisexual on some level, Gyllenhaal responds, "I don't think so. I think that relationships are relative and sexuality is relative. Everybody has different interests and perversions. Everybody's different. I think what this movie does is deconstruct any idea of sameness. What's similar in all of us is that we're different."

Brokeback Mountain this week and is still available on DVD from Amazon.

Matt Rauscher's review of Brokeback Mountain