JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Michelle Williams Calls Out Brokeback Mountain Oscar Snub 20 Years After Infamous Best Picture Loss: Here’s What Happened
Michelle Williams breaks her silence on Brokeback Mountain's Academy Awards snub, addressing the injustice 20 years later. Read on to discover what the actress had to say.
Almost two decades following the landmark release of Brokeback Mountain, Michelle Williams continues to be stunned that the film was snubbed for Best Picture by the Academy at the 2006 Oscars.
While appearing recently on Watch What Happens Live, Williams continued to exhibit ongoing incredulity regarding the infamous loss to Paul Haggis's Crash—a feat that ignited universal outrage at the time and still garners criticism today.
Cohen, who gushed about the film being one of his favorites, asked the actress, "Did you realize at the time that you were making that what a profound impact it was going to have on people?" to which she replied, "Yes, because people were so open about it."
As she talked about the lasting cultural impact of the movie, Williams remembered how the Ang Lee-helmed 2005 neo-Western romantic film evoked an emotional response during its press tour, especially from male audiences. She said, "I mean, what was Crash?"
To Williams, that pervasive reaction spoke volumes about the strength of the movie and foretold the significance it would assume in the coming years.
She said, "People were so open about it. I just remember doing the junket. 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 that it was going to be special."
According to IndieWire, Ang Lee once regarded losing Best Picture to Crash as a snub and attributed it to the Academy's unease with the queer content of the film and homophobia. He told the outlet, "Back then, [Brokeback Mountain] had a ceiling. We got a lot of support — up to that much. It has that feeling. I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything. It’s just how they were."
Brokeback Mountain, starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, David Harbour, Anna Faris, Kate Mara, and Randy Quaid, among others, was a commercial and critical hit, garnering eight nominations for Academy Awards and bagging three Oscars.
Latest Articles
