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Heath
Ledger We haven't seen Ledger on film for a while, but 2005 will change that. The sexy Australian has six, count 'em, six, features coming out in the New Year. Of course the most eagerly awaited by gay fans is Brokeback Mountain where he plays a queer rancher opposite equally humpy Jake Gyllenhall. Unperturbed about the flack over the gay romance in Alexander Ledger says Brokeback will push the envelope. Especially one scene with Gyllenhall. "The great thing was that we decided - well, he grabs me and he slams me up against the wall and kisses me. "And then I grab him and I slam him up against the wall and I kiss him. And we were doing take after take after take." Jake remembers it a bit differently. He says that Heath was so rough he nearly got a broken nose. Often considered a lightweight and just another pretty face, Heath Ledger finally began getting noticed thanks to Four Feathers (2002) and The Order (2003). After The Order he teamed up with Mick Jagger for a picture about Australia's most infamous bandits. In 2005, along with Brokeback Mountain, Ledger stars in The Brothers grim, Lords of Dogtown, and three pictures still in production: Casanova, Nautica, and Candy.
From a time when all he had was 69 cents to his name and enough supplies to last him a trip across his home country to quickly becoming one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars, Heath Ledger has a lot to be thankful for. One could successfully argue that a combination of innate intelligence, unmatchable talent, and extreme stubbornness has brought Heath where he is today. Heath first got his start in the Globe Shakespeare Company in Perth, Australia. Catching the acting bug from his older sister Kate, Heath went on to star in the title role of "Peter Pan." He was smitten. "I just loved it," he says, "and kept doing it. I blinked my eyes and I was getting paid. Doors kept opening and I kept walking through them." During his time at Guildford Grammar school, Heath maintained his interest in both drama and sports, obtaining numerous hockey awards as well as receiving honors in drama and being appointed the captain of the drama team in 1996. Heath also coordinated a team to take part in a nationwide high-school dance competition known as Rock Eisteddfod. "We were the first all-guys school to ever do it," states Heath. "I choreographed the whole thing. These kids had never danced and didn't think they could do it. By the end, when they won the competition, they were so blown away by it."
Finishing high school a year early at 16, he urged his friend Trevor DiCarlo (his best friend since he was 3 years old) to drive 2600 miles to Sydney in search of fame and fortune. "It was really about exploring life," says Heath. "I just wanted to get on that train that was flying past at 90 miles an hour. And my job was an excuse to get out and just do that." Heath's movie debut was in a 1997 Australian teen drama "Blackrock" which led him to a breakthrough part as the first Australian television gay role on "Sweat," a show about young Olympic hopefuls. "He had the choice of two roles," recalls his father. "One was the swimmer and the other was the gay bicyclist. I was thinking to myself, Yeah, he'll choose the swimmer! I used to be a swimmer when I was younger. This'll be great! But then he told me he chose the gay role. I went, 'Oh, God . . . well, O.K.' But his response to that was 'Look, Dad, this is more of an acting role. So if I want to get some sort of recognition, that's the one I should be doing.' Soon he was starring in Fox's medieval drama "Roar," where Heath played a Celtic warrior prince. "Ironically, it was a 'Braveheart' rip-off," he says. "It was shot beautifully, and the script was half decent." Co-starring as Heath's young wife was neophyte Keri Russell whom writers mistakenly killed off in the early episodes. "They shouldn't have let her die," Heath notes. "We worked together really well. And after they killed her, they were going through all the possibilities of how they could get her back. Couldn't come up with anything." Although the show was cancelled, it won the loincloth-clad Ledger legions of gay and female fans and eventually an agent in the States.
After "Two Hands," Heath had two days to get to Seattle from Sydney to begin shooting "Ten Things I Hate About You," with Julia Stiles. "I had no rehearsals, nothing. I just basically turned up and went, Uh, what am I doing?" After "Ten Things," Heath refused succumb to the big-money lure of the youth-movie genre and waited over a year before accepting any work. "There's little depth in those scripts," he says about the numerous teen based movie scripts he was sent. "You can only take the psyche of a teenager to a certain level. "I was literally living off Ramen noodles and water just because I was sticking to my guns. It was very hard because they offer you so much money," says Heath. "I guess I had thrown myself into a higher league of actors on a list that I probably shouldn't have been on at that point, but saying no turned out to be a lot more valuable than saying yes." After holding out for a year, Heath beat out nearly 200 actors for his role "The Patriot," in which he stared as a zealous Revolutionary War rebel at odds with his battle-weary father, played Mel Gibson. Heath revealed that after auditioning, he had to await a while, saying, "It was terrible. It was awful. For every day for three weeks they said: ‘Tomorrow you're going to know, I promise you.’" He had also heard that Ryan Phillippe had been up for the role, saying, "Ryan did a really amazing screen test as well. The executives and everyone said: ‘Fine, we'll leave it up to the director. If you pick this guy the movie's going to go this way and if you pick that guy the movie's going to go that way two different movies.’" |
In
his first major starring role Ledger was saddled with a forgettable
vehicle. A Knight's Tale was a major disappointment. Ledger
was not. In fact it was impossible to take your eyes off him. 
Heath's
parents divorced when he was at age 10, yet he maintains that he was not
devastated by the event. "The point I got to very quickly, after my
parents' divorce, was to realize that they were just humans," he
says. Heath still remains close with his father, saying that "our
relationship went from being in each other's faces to being best friends.
I guess that comes from understanding him as an adult now that I'm an
adult." His immediate family has extended with half sisters Olivia
and Ashleigh, whom he wishes he could spend more quality time with.
"I feel like I’m a stranger to them," Heath admits.
"That’s why I try to get back as much as possible."
While
auditioning for roles in the States, Heath was hired for "Two
Hands," a black comedy which, ironically, brought him back to
Australia. "You've apparently got to leave the country to get
work," he laughs. "It cleaned up in Australia and it won all the
awards." Unfortunately, the film didn't fare so well when played for
audiences at Sundance. "I don't think I've met one American who fully
understands exactly what's going on in that movie," jokes Heath.