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
Jake Gyllenhaal only other film not directed by his father, in which Gyllenhaal was allowed to perform, was the 1993 film "Josh and S.A.M.", a little-known children's adventure. Gyllenhaal graduated from the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles in 1998, then attended Columbia University, where his sister was a senior and from which his mother had graduated, to study Eastern religions and philosophy. Gyllenhaal dropped out after two years to concentrate on acting but has expressed intentions to eventually finish his degree. Gyllenhaal's first lead role was in "October Sky", Joe Johnston's 1999 adaptation of the Homer Hickam autobiography "Rocket Boys", in which