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Michelle Williams appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” to promote her new FX series “Dying for Sex.” During the interview, host Andy Cohen took a brief moment to call out one of her most acclaimed movies: Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain.” Willians earned an Oscar nomination for playing Alma, the increasingly isolated wife of Heath Ledger’s damaged cowboy.
Cohen explained to Williams “what an important movie ‘Brokeback Mountain’” was to him and so many gay men at the time of its 2005 theatrical release, adding: “I think it’s still in my top two movies of all time. Did you realize at the time you were making that, what a profound impact it was going to have on people?”
“Yes, because people were so open about it,” Williams answered. “I remember doing the junket, you don’t get an opportunity to see a lot of grown men cry, and that was the moment I think that we all knew it was going to be special to people.”
Cohen then brought up the infamous 2006 Oscars where “Crash” shockingly won best picture over presumed frontrunner “Brokeback Mountain.” Many industry pundits to this day consider the decision to be one of the Academy’s worst in history. “Brokeback” had already won the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for best picture at that point in the season. Then “Crash” pulled up the controversial upset.
“I was very upset about the best picture loss,” Cohen said. “I mean, ‘Crash’? Is that what won?”
Williams then offered her own shade to the delight of the studio audience by asking. “I mean, what was ‘Crash’?”
“Thank you, I mean, who’s talking about ‘Crash’ right now?” Cohen responded to silence from his audience. “I hear a pin drop. Yes, very upset!”
Ang Lee told IndieWire last year that “Brokeback” winning best picture was so presumed that an Oscars stagehand told him to stay backstage and not go back to his seat after Lee was awarded best director. In the aftermath of the “Crash” upset, many pundits accused the Academy of homophobia.
“Back then, [‘Brokeback Mountain’] had a ceiling,” Lee explained. “We got a lot of support — up to that much. It has that feeling. I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything. It’s just how they were.”
