Jake Gyllenhaal began, Gyllenhaal praised his encouraging direction of the actors and sensitive approach to the material. At the Directors Guild of America Awards on January 28, 2006, Gyllenhaal also praised Lee for "his humbleness and his respect for everyone around him". When asked about his kissing scenes with Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain", Gyllenhaal said, "As an actor, I think we need to embrace the times we feel most uncomfortable." When asked about the more intimate scenes with Ledger, Gyllenhaal likened them to "doing a sex scene with a woman I'm not particularly attracted to". Following the release of "Brokeback Mountain",
Heath Ledger death. While working on the film in London, Ledger told Sarah Lyall in their "New York Times" interview that he viewed "The Dark Knight"s Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". For his work on "The Dark Knight", Ledger posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which his family accepted on his behalf, as well as numerous other posthumous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, which Christopher Nolan accepted for him. At the time of his death on 22 January 2008, Ledger had completed about half of the work for