Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s “Brokeback Mountain” (and What TikTok is Getting Wrong)

TikTok has taken a fascination with alleging Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s queer relationship under the byline “which could mean nothing.” The latest development among many theories includes a universe where Damon and Affleck played Jack and Ennis in the queer classic Brokeback Mountain (2005). 

Though the concept makes for interesting theory, this circumstance really could “mean nothing,” as it is only half-true.

Before Ang Lee took on the directing role for Brokeback, Gus Van Sant was offered the gig. Van Sant is the director of the New Queer Cinema classics My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Mala Noche (1986) where he distinguished himself in the independent film scene as a writer and director. But Van Sant has also taken on more commercial work, such as Good Will Hunting (1997) with Affleck and Damon.

When Van Sant started the Brokeback Mountain project, he struggled to cast his leads. “Nobody wanted to do it,” Van Sant told IndieWire in 2018. “I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.”

Van Sant believed his vision for the film just didn’t align with the circumstances. He elaborated, “I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out.”

In his preliminary casting call, Van Sant did encounter half of the Damon-Affleck duo. TikTok has been citing Ben Affleck as the lead opposite Matt Damon, but only Damon was officially in the running.

Matt Damon told Playboy in 2012, “Way back, Gus and I talked about my doing Brokeback Mountain with Joaquin Phoenix.” In fact, Phoenix had been in the running since Van Sant took the project, and he stayed on the project after Damon refused the role—until Phoenix, too, had to drop out.

“I had just done The Talented Mr. Ripley and All the Pretty Horses,” Damon elaborated. “So I said, ‘Gus, let’s do it in a couple of years. I just did a gay movie and a cowboy movie. I can’t do a gay cowboy movie now.’”

Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, there has never been any official statement from Affleck about Brokeback Mountain, and his name was not one of many actors listed by Van Sant in his recollections of the casting search. 

What is certainly true is that Damon did have the project on his slate for a moment. And although Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger’s performances in the film are legendary, there may be some alternate universe where Phoenix and Damon played Jack and Ennis.