Media censorship in Singapore Movies with "strong homosexual themes" are typically given R21 ratings regardless of other content in the film. The American films "Milk", a 2008 biopic starring Sean Penn as gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and "Brokeback Mountain", a 2005 romantic drama about two homosexual cowboys played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both received R21 rating for depictions of homosexual sexual activities. However, the 2018 film "Love, Simon" about a gay teenager coming to terms with his identity and finding out which of his classmates is his anonymous online pen pal was given an R21 classification despite having no depictions of
Moulin Rouge! In this way, Christian would appear to the other characters to be ahead-of-his-time as a musician and writer. Leonardo DiCaprio, who worked with Luhrmann on "Romeo + Juliet", auditioned for the role of Christian. Luhrmann also considered younger actors for the role, including Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal before Ewan McGregor won the part. Courtney Love auditioned for the role of Satine and assisted in clearing licensing rights for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to be used in the film. Production began in November 1999 and was completed in May 2000, with a budget of $52.5 million. Filming generally went smoothly,