The 2006 Oscars will forever go down as one of the worst ceremonies in history after the much-derided Crash beat out the groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture but it could have been even worse.

In an interview with Another Man magazine published Monday, Jake Gyllenhaal revealed that he and late co-star Heath Ledger were approached to contribute to the opening monologue and poke fun at the same-sex romance at the center of Ang Lees 2005 film.

While the Spider-Man: Far From Home actor was open to the idea, he recalled that Ledger outright rejected the offer because he refused to make jokes at the expense of the films love story.

I mean, I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it, Gyllenhaal told the outlet. And Heath refused. I was sort of at the time, Oh, okay... whatever. Im always like: its all in good fun. And Heath said, Its not a joke to me I dont want to make any jokes about it.