10 HUGE Movie Roles Actors Were Too Scared To Take On

Wahlberg is no stranger to movie nudity and handling explicit content as seen in his big screen debut Boogie Nights, but in a bit of news sure to soothe Leo, some roles were too much for the Boston actor and Entourage inspiration. Among these was the starring role in Ang Lee’s tender romantic masterpiece Brokeback Mountain, playing closeted cowboy Jack Twist alongside a love interest played by the late Heath Ledger.

Although he would go on to somehow think that making M Night Shaymalan’s The Happening was a good idea, Wahlberg explained his worry at the explicit content featured in the opening pages of Brokeback Mountain were, thus justifying his avoidance of the critically adored film. He admitted that he only read the first twenty before balking from the project.

Just imagine if he had read on and discovered that, after the single early (and fairly tasteful) sex scene, the rest of the project is a sombre meditation on love and loss. We may never have gotten to see Four Brothers! What a loss that could have been.

Oh, and also a post-Donnie Darko Jake Gyllenhall might never have made his mark in Hollywood, but that’s another story.