Jake Gyllenhaal to Play Gay Daddy in Fun Home Movie

Jake Gyllenhaal may be playing queer again according to reports. The actor will reportedly star in the big screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical Fun Home as the main character’s gay father.

The Evening Standard reports that Gyllenhaal will produce the film version of Fun Home, which won seven Tony Awards in 2015, including Best Musical. The show was groundbreaking for being the first Broadway musical with a lesbian protagonist: it follows Alison through her life as she attempts to reconcile her own queerness with that of her father, who committed suicide.

Gyllenhaal is said to be playing the father, and will also produce the film. Of course, this won’t be the first time the Spider-Man star has played queer: he was Heath Ledger’s lover in Brokeback Mountain and starred as a sexually fluid art critic in 2019 Netflix horror flick Velvet Buzzsaw.

“I think we had been cast for our ‘essences’ without really understanding what our ‘essences’ were – and that’s outside of our sexuality – we’re two straight guys cast in these roles, but who we are, who we were, [director] Ang [Lee] could see,” Gyllenhaal recently said of his casting in Brokeback Mountain in an interview with GQ.

“So when the movie had the response that it had… I don’t think we recognized what Ang had seen in us so we were blind at the profundity and the echo the movie made.

“I don’t think we ever had any idea it would have the impact that it had. To make a movie that even just works is a miracle. When it resonates even beyond that, it’s impossible. And it has nothing to do with you in the end.”

There’s no set date for Fun Home or additional casting news, but stay tuned.

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