Happy Heath

January 13, 2006 - 11:22AM

TheAge.com.au

There's no mistaking the chemistry between

Australian heart-throb Heath Ledger and

American beauty Michelle Williams.

In their controversial new film Brokeback Mountain, they play a doomed couple, with Ledger's character tormented by a gay love affair he cannot bear to end.

But their off-screen union couldn't be more different.

The stars, who met on the

Brokeback set, are relishing their roles as new parents to three-month-old Matilda Rose - and in each other's lives.

"Every day I just fall deeper and deeper and deeper in love with both my girls," Ledger, 26, says. "I love fatherhood. It's changed me in so many ways.  You have to put everything on hold. Everything revolves around her. It's a real delight and we are very happy to relinquish that time to her."

In Brokeback Mountain - which has been banned in two cinemas in the US because of its tale of gay love between two cowboys - Ledger plays terse cowboy Ennis Del Mar.

The Perth-born actor says the role matured him as a person.

"In order to tell this story I had to mature as a person and actor," he says.

"I try and find that in all the choices I make.

"I like to feel the roles and I have to grow in order to achieve it. I like to walk away from a film and know I have learnt and grown."

Ledger speaks candidly of the intimate scenes with co-star Jack Gyllenhaal.

He says there's no preparation possible for such scenarios, be they with a man or a woman.

"You can't sit at home and kiss your hand," he says.

"There is no preparation you can do for it.

"There were real objectives and goals within those scenes so I think we felt safer that we weren't just doing a love scene for the sake of doing it. There was a purpose.

"At the end of the day, it was just like kissing a human being. Homosexuality isn't an epidemic, a plague, or a virus you can catch. I didn't fear I was suddenly going to have this illness."

But Ledger does admits feeling uneasy about it.

"It was definitely uncomfortable," he says.

"Although my nerves and anxiety before could capture the anxiety that Ennis felt. He had to feel that.

"I think Jake had the harder job because he had to play the aged school pro, he had been there, he loves it and he is comfortable with it.

"Ennis hates it and hates the way he loves and the way he feels and expresses, so it was a little easier for me."

Ledger and Williams currently split their time between Brooklyn and their Sydney home at beachside Bronte. Williams says that for now they have no long-term plans to settle in one country.

"We are just going to make it up as we go," she says.

"We are not entirely sure where we will end up. Maybe it's not Brooklyn or Bronte. Maybe it's another third option that we haven't even dreamt of yet or a place we haven't even been to yet."

But the couple accept there'll come a time when Matilda will need stability.

"When it is time for her to go to school and settle down we will make that decision," Williams says.  "But for right now, she travels well on aeroplanes. 

"She slept more on the flight from the States to Australia then she has done since she was born. So put me on an aeroplane!" she laughs.

- AAP