→ Interview: Sophie Reid on ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘Lone Wolf’
“Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges are both incredible in the sense that they’re very receptive actors—they feed off of each other. They’re keen improvisers. For me, I was being very receptive to what they were doing all the time. Simply by observing them, that affected how we all sang and how we all performed the material that supported what they were doing.”
the pieces i drew for lucas hedges (ennis) and mike faist (jack) and was able to give to them at the run of the brokeback mountain stage show in london - which was absolutely incredible (you can see the video of me giving mike his here!)
I just saw yet another person complain about the stage production of Brokeback Mountain "casting two straight men" as the leads, so I want to finally issue my very unfriendly reminder that:
As far as everybody I've spoken to about this and I are aware (and I will happily edit this post if it turns out there's something I've missed), Mike Faist has never publicly identified his sexuality. We do not and cannot know if he's straight or not. When we say "Don't assume people's sexual orientations," it shouldn't just mean "Don't assume anybody is gay." Without even getting into the potential dangers and harm already done from requiring artists to out themselves, it's hypocritical and heteronormative to only apply that assumption standard to queerness.
Lucas Hedges is not straight. While he has also never claimed a specific label, he has been open about being attracted to men and women since 2018 and has identified as sexually fluid since he was in the sixth grade. Calling him straight not only erases his own lived experiences and identity, it also disrespects and deligitimizes everyone who is unlabled, fluid, and/or on the multisexual spectrum.