u/fruitybishop

Just picked this up from the library to read and stopped dead in my tracks when I came by his name. We miss you, Heath!

So glad he had Michelle and Matilda :(

Some of these are really cool - the one with their faces split reminds me a bit of the background photo in the menu screen on the DVD. This is one of Heath’s best performances for me. I also highly recommend the book as well!

[I did my best to copy the interview below. I did my best with the scans - the cover is so gorgeous! Any mistakes are my own.]

As Heath Ledger strides onto stage at Radio City Music Hall, there is a roar from the crowd so hot, so fierce, that one has to remember he is merely a man, an actor, and not the savior of the Western world. Ledger, his usual thrush of fair hair buzzed clean down to his skull, flushes slightly, a tense deer in the headlights, and continues into the spotlight.

The young Aussie, who plays an English blue blood in the swashbuckler The Four Feathers, is here to provide some good-natured sexy promo for the movie and to introduce the booty-shaking sexiness that is Shakira for the MTV Video Music Awards. His arm is sturdily intertwined through the arm of his film's costar Kate Hudson, who, used to this kind of insane hoopla, gives him an adoring, supportive squeeze. Relax? How can he relax?

Backstage he's bumping elbows with Eminem, Jennifer Lopez, and the King of Pop. At his feet a rowdy audience of thousands of wildly garbed musicians and fans call out his name, await on his word. In essence, this is where he dreamt he might be one day. But one day is this moment, right now, and it's all a bit surreal. Three years ago he didn't have enough dosh to do his laundry. Now, like fellow countryman Russell Crowe, he's a man whose nod can green light a project.

The camera roams his vulnerable face, loving every curve, every bone, reading every flicker of pleasure, of fear. He's 23 years old, eight thousand miles removed from where he was born, ten minutes away from a cigarette, with two days to go before he heads to California for a sleep in his own bed.

Before he had a country of women swooning as Mel Gibson's freedom-fighting son in that Revolutionary War rouser, The Patriot, he was just another beautiful, amber-voiced antipodean looking for a break. Now, with roles including the obstreperous son to Billy Bob in the Academy Award-nominated Monster's Ball and as the lusty medieval action hero in A Knight's Tale tiered behind him, Ledger's suddenly got three, count 'em three movies wrapped which broker his name as box-office gold.

"I didn't really have any expectations. I had goals. But what has made it easy for me," says Ledger, his eyes hooded in wraparound green shades, head drooping toward the dining table, “is that I'm damn lazy, sleep all day if I could." To his left hand is a cappuccino. Next to his right, a Diet Coke. In the center, a pack of cigarettes. He takes off his sunglasses. "Okay, what I really mean is, I have learned that I would not waste my time for any amount of money for a project I don't believe in. But the pressure is always there. Succeed or fail, you can't ignore it. You have to face it head on."

We are having an early dinner in the garden of the Chateau Marmont, above Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. It is a beautiful, leafy space, and one of the few places where planet-size billboards of glittering new movies and nubile poseurs can cast a long shadow over your pasta. On this balmy evening, he seems to be wearing much the same as he wore on the MTV Video Music Awards: light-gray jacket, corduroy pants, red T-shirt, and a mellow, if slightly wary demeanor. A striped cap he picked up in London tucks over his head. He is 20 minutes away from Casa Feliz, or Happy House, the 1925 Spanish-style spread he calls home, which is generally populated with a cheery swarm of out-of-town Australian actors and guests.

A rattling helicopter makes low Black Hawk Down loops over our quadrant. Ledger's friend Josh Hartnett, who is sitting across the patio having coffee, unconsciously looks up, then laughs. Distracted by the same, Ledger, casually pops a Camel in the direction of his mouth, but misses entirely.

"Jet lag reflex," he says, then rubs his shorn pate bemusedly - the clean slate a result of too many wigs and hair experiments over the last few films. “At first, people thought I had some terrible illness, then they get used to it,” he says,” and no one really recognizes me." Not everyone. A table full of women are coolly sneaking looks, especially a 13-year-old girl who is giving Ledger an openly dreamy stare.

He looks up at the billboards behind him, and at the wide blue sky…"Los Angeles," he enunciates deliberately, putting a heft of meaning behind those two words. "I have really figured out a lot in the past three years. Especially about the way the business works. A Knight's Tale was a fun movie, but I had no idea what I was doing. I had never run a show. And when I first saw my face [on the billboards], with the words, 'He will rock you,’ underneath," he says, "ah, that was a bit of a shock." The teenage girl is still fixed on him. He returns her looks with a sweet smile. He whispers, “I’ve got little sister her age." She blushes and turns away.

As legend has it, Ledger is the beloved son of Kim and Sally (a Wuthering Heights fan who named her boy after Laurence Olivier’s character Heathcliff). His father runs a Perth-based engineering business, his mother tutored French. Inspired by elder sister Kate's interest in drama, he landed his first professional acting gig at age ten in a local stage production of Peter Pan. Thereafter, he attended Guildford Grammar School. Managing to sidestep its military training program, which included a round of tutelage with automatic weapons, he became president of the drama club and the school's field hockey star as well. Upon graduation, with his parent's blessing, he and best friend Trevor DiCarlo hopped into a car with no air-conditioner and sped the 2,500 miles across the wasteland to Sydney and stardom. By 19, with a dossier ofTV shows and the popular indie Australian gangster movie Two Hands, with Bryan Brown, under his belt, our boy flew west and slipped into Hollywood, where he shone opposite Julia Stiles in to Things I Hate About You, the hit wet-pack flick based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. And except for the following year-where his arty stance on "no more teen movies" slid him into grinding poverty and a half-hearted audition for TV's Roswell-Ledger's rise from unknown babe to big-screen honey has been smooth and swift, with few stumbles along the way.

"See you in a couple of weeks," says Ledger, waving goodbye to the equally tall and lanky Hartnett, who has finished his meal. He opens his jacket, frowns, and trying not to gawk at rapper Mos Def, whom he earlier spotted in the corner, gropes in his pockets for a match, showing off a red T-shirt which bears the unlikely stamp, Rigor Mortis. He laughs, "What can I say, it helps me relax.”

He is 11,000 miles from Morocco, where for three and half months, he worked on Shekhar Kapur's (Elizabeth) remake of the Zoltán Korda 1939 classic The Four Feathers. Reportedly, it was a difficult shoot - flash floods, sand-storms, on-set injuries, script squabbling, passionate character discussions. The experience was also encased by the intense environment. The beautiful, endless desert was once an ocean and Ledger would find himself sitting on a rock, noticing sea fossils embedded within. The sand is a force of nature so powerful, it has driven all the way west, reaching as far as Mexico City. With alchemy like that in his soul, he admits, "I still feel a little wobbly being here.

I've been away eight months, getting four hours of sleep a night. Then, at one stage for three disorienting days," he adds proudly, "I worked on three different movies, in three different countries."

Somehow, this doesn't feel lazy. He wrapped and flew out of Rome on a Friday from the set of The Sin Eater (which also stars A Knight's Tale brethren Mark Addy and Shannyn Sossamon), in which he plays a priest tracking down a demonic "sin eater" who gives absolution outside the church by literally eating someone's vices. On Saturday morning, he arrived in London and worked that weekend looping and filming the final scene of The Four Feathers. And on Monday evening, he flew to Melbourne to begin as the lead in The Kelly Gang, the true story of notorious nineteenth century Down Under outlaw, Ned Kelly (who made his own homemade armor, including bullet-stopping steel chest plates and hel-mets) with fellow Aussies Geoffrey Rush and Naomi Watts, whom he is rumored to be dating.

"After that was finished," a slow grin slips sideways across his face as he gets to his most recent memory, "I went to Bali with my friends - surfed, hung out on the beach for three weeks. Just came back." After all those months of endless costumes it must have been relaxing to have a completely clothing-free experience. "Me? Naked?" he asks, recoiling. His hero Gene Kelly was never asked a question of that sort. "Butt naked? No. I wear shorts. Maybe I'll go with a thong next time. But nudity, ah...no. Haven't done it on-screen either. I guess I would. I'm not ashamed of the body. Sure, the English can do it. it's like, 'Of course! I'm a trained Shakespearean, I can take it off. I'm ach-ting!’ On A Knight's Tale, Paul Bettany [who played Chaucer] walked around naked on set, but it was like everyone looked him straight in the eye, at all times, as they were concerned he might think, ah...so it was a whole lot of," he segues into a film voice, direct gaze, mimes an overly firm handshake, 'Hi Paul, how you doing? Had lunch yet?' He laughs. "Okay, but back to Bali, that was fantastic. Incredible surf. Tons of reef breaks and deep waves. When you get up on the board, the feeling is a mixture of adrenaline and pure Zen serenity. Better than yoga, which I know is supposed to teach you patience. But I've been to classes, and I get really bored really fast. I get that voice in my head."

His arms splay wide, miming a serious yogic stance, "God I could be doing something better with my life," he strikes another posture, "I could be having sex now, I'd much rather be having sex." He drawls, "Yeah, that's where I get my exercise, that's my work out, that and surfing." His brown eyes suddenly light up like Christmas morning. "And, I also brought home this beautiful, beautiful painting of the Buddha's head, it's amazing." He pauses. Frowns. "Brought something else home too." He rises, "Excuse me. Bali belly. Be right back," and heads to the bathroom.

You don't need to spend much time around Ledger to realize that behind his reticent responses, he couldn't be more serious about what he does and what he wants to do. Perhaps the shielding is because Ledger is being asked to explain the kind of thing which words can destroy: the mystery that transforms a craft into magic, about doing something original, about creating something which can make people feel. And when in The Four Feathers, Ledger's mixed-up cadet refuses to go off and fight with his regiment in the Sudan - and his friends (including Wes Bentley) and fiancée (Hudson) send him four feathers symbolizing his cowardice - it's an ache you feel body and soul.

He also displays an impressive, natural valiance most stuntmen would envy. Halfway through the film, his horse, one of many in a pack of dangerously galloping horses, is speeding away. Ledger, on foot, runs desperately alongside. Managing to catch onto the steed, he pulls himself up into the saddle and continues to ride. Ledger, trying to sound off-hand, recounts, "It's all from the legs. You run and jump. Half the producers didn't even know we were going to do that. I did one practice run at it, gave it every-thing...and my legs went over the saddle and I landed on the other side of the horse. On The Patriot, there was this big carnival scene and I just slipped off my horse, landed on the ground, and got stomped on. I had these huge bruises on my calf muscles, these massive hoof prints. I was under there, almost dying and not a soul saw it. In their mind it was a perfect take. Then, on The Kelly Gang, there was this horse that was playing dead. I had my leg on his neck holding it down stroking it, and it freaked out, stood up and pushed me over and tried to step around me. It was a bit frightening." And what about on A Knight's Tale?

"Okay. That's enough," he says teasingly. "I'm a little worried you're going to call me the horse-guy-actor-fella."

Well it's not romance fella. So far, the most intimate relationships he will confess to come with four legs. Ledger proffers a sideways look. Withstanding the attention of his recent high-profile romance with Heather Graham was not easy. His voice goes so low and gentle for a moment, I can barely hear him. "I'm not good at talking about it," he says. "That's a side I protect. Love makes you vulnerable, and yeah, I'm frightened of anyone I love. To me, it's all about a laugh, a voice, and I'm a big one on smell," he flashes a shy grin, "It kills me. Under the arms, everywhere. The back of the neck right where the fluffy bits of hair are. Marriage and children? The second part I agree with, the first, I don't know. I'm not into the whole idea of a contract which legislates love. Although, you never know. Things change. Life changes. My grandmother has Alzheimer's. It's horrible. It's really hard, especially on my dad. Not recognizing him. The heartbreaking thing is every now and then she does recognize him for a split second...then it's gone again."

We are less than a mile away from the massive Four Feathers billboard on Sunset. He is in classic Hollywood icon Barrymoreesque profile, dipping the beautiful Kate Hudson backward in a romantic embrace. In eight weeks or so it will come down and another will take its place. Ledger lights up another cigarette. He covers the cigarette against the wind, showing off knuckles that are still visibly scraped and scarred from the punch-ups in The Kelly Gang. "I live in the present, I have to. I want to," he states with a hint of fierceness, sandbagging against future angsting. "I'm happy because I know who I am, who I love, where I came from, before this all happened. Fame? Money? I am so grateful, but in the larger scope of things, the truth is, I find what I do completely insignificant."

He spots the teenage girl heading toward him with an openly nervous, hopeful look, pen and paper in hand. He smiles, then murmurs, "Most of the time,” and turns to welcome her. 

Does anyone know the significance of the neck tattoos for Dan and Candy? I went back through a PDF of the book and they are not mentioned. Unless they are Heath and Abbie’s own tattoos?

Just curious. I love this movie - especially that Japan poster!