Time may heal all wounds, but that's no guarantee they won't leave scars.
The untimely death of Heath Ledger sent shockwaves through Hollywood in 2008 -- particularly to his Brokeback Mountain costar Jake Gyllenhaal. Now, in an exclusive interview with People, Gyllenhaal reveals how Ledger's death still affects him -- he finds it difficult to talk about to this day.
"Personally, it affected me in ways I can't necessarily put in words or even would want to talk about publicly," Gyllenhaal said. "In terms of professionally, I think I was at an age where mortality was not always clear to me."
Ledger died in January 2008 of a prescription drug overdose. He was 28, and Gyllenhaal was 27, an age when -- as his interviewer notes -- one is not accustomed to dealing with the death of friends.
Gyllenhaal described the experience of filming Brokeback as "deeply sad," a shoot characterized by the "particular loneliness" of a small cast filming on location.
"I think you live in this bubble, too, of making films," Gyllenhaal said. "There are real friends, and there is a real community. There is also that where [Macklemore] says, 'The curtain closes and nobody notices'...I think that's true, and I think that's okay."
"At the time, I assumed everyone would notice -- and they did with Heath dying, but I think it [gave me] the experience of, 'This is fleeting.'" Gyllenhaal continued. "And none of the attention or synthesized love that comes from the success of a film really matters at all. What matters is the relationships you make when you make a film, and the people you learn from when you're preparing for a film. That changed a lot for me."
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