03 January 2006 

So how would a hip, young, straight Australian actor get into character as a quiet, lonesome, gay American cowboy, circa 1963?

Let’s ask Heath Ledger, who does just that in the Ang Lee film, Brokeback Mountain.

“I certainly didn’t go into this movie relating to it,” says Ledger, 26. “It just took investigating.”

Ledger says playing his character, Ennis Del Mar, was a process of discovery.

“Ennis obviously had a battle within him, and I wanted to discover what that battle was. The conclusion I came to is that Ennis is battling, within himself, his genetic structure, and he’s battling his father and his father’s father’s traditions, fears and morals in life, all deeply embedded in him. It was a big part of the restraint, of the inability to love and express himself.”

In the midst of conveying all that mute loneliness for his movie role, Ledger fell in love in real life with Michelle Williams, an actress who is also in the cast of Brokeback Mountain. Ledger has been linked romantically in the past with such actresses as Heather Graham and Naomi Watts, but that was then.

And this is now. And now he and Williams live in Brooklyn, where their daughter Matilda was born at the end of October.

Ledger wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to these two women; he is intense and joyful on the subject of fatherhood.

“I’ve never been more confident and excited about anything in my life.” he says. “The timing of it all couldn’t be better. All the buzz around this movie, and the pressures of having to promote other films, and it all pales in comparison to having this child. It has been my salvation to have this baby — it keeps me just completely, firmly attached to life. My perspective is so changed,” he says.

“It’s been such a beautiful experience.”

Ledger, who was named for Heathcliffe* in Wuthering Heights, was acting in local theatre in Perth by the time he was 10.

He left Perth at 16 to pursue acting in Sydney. The actor has said the freedom and trust his parents gave him when he went off to act at such a young age were the greatest gifts he has ever received; by 1999 he was in America and he quickly found success in such films as Two Hands, The Patriot, A Knight’s Tale, 10 Things I Hate About You, Monster’s Ball, The Order, Four Feathers, The Brothers Grimm and Casanova,which opens here Friday.

That’s a lot of work.

“Fatherhood is the best excuse to stop working for a while,” he says, and he laughs. Ledger, who seems to have a pleasant, count-your-blessings attitude toward life, says he’s grateful the timing has worked out so well.

“I worked my (butt) off, I did these five films, and it’s like, synchronicity — I meet the love of my life, we’re having a beautiful child, I’m exhausted from work. I don’t want to go out and work again right now — so I’ve got ample time to be a father. We’re so lucky to be in this position.

“I’ve been right next to my girl for the entire nine months of the pregnancy. I do all the shopping and keep the house clean and keep her comfortable and happy. What if I had to work all day, and come home and see her just a little bit at night? I’m here for her every step of the way and I want to be for at least the first year of our child’s life.

“And everything led in that direction.”