10 Actors Who Hated Parodies Of Their Work
8. Heath Ledger Refuses To Go To Oscars Due To Brokeback Mountain Jokes
Widely celebrated as one of the finest thespians of his generation upon appraising his truly diverse career before his untimely death in 2008, it comes as little surprise to discover just how serious Heath Ledger was about his work and respecting the stories he was telling.
And it was because of this passion towards protecting the efforts and characters he'd put his heart and soul into bringing into existence that the eventual Oscar-winner decided to snub the chance to be in attendance for the 2007 Academy Awards Ceremony.
According to Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal when discussing the matter with Another Man magazine:
“I mean, I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it. And Heath refused. 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.’”
Of course, the Academy were quick to celebrate the star's contributions by the time his game-changing take on The Joker exploded into cinemas not long after. But Ledger clearly wasn't all too pleased about their intentions to poke fun at a project both men clearly held very dear to their hearts.