Ledger Adores Love But Not Paparazzi
by Gregory Ellwood

Sept. 12, 2006


A year after the hype on "Brokeback Mountain" truly began, Heath Ledger now tries to live a life of relative obscurity. Wearing a grey print T-shirt, tan pants, shades (which never come off) and holding a tote bag of new kids' stuff that only he could make look cool, Ledger seems relieved to be a smaller fish in this year's big Toronto International Film Festival pond as he promotes his new Aussie indie film, "Candy."

Inspired by the life of author Luke Davies, the film is a melancholy and harrowing tale depicting the roller-coaster ride of two 20-somethings whose relationship teeters on their heroin addiction. It's also a surprisingly touching love story, which is what appealed to Ledger the most.

"Love is a big part of my life," Ledger says. "I adore it and whenever possible, I like to find a story that ... is attempting to tell a story of love. And that's what I found from this book, which is a complicated love story -- a love triangle really. The two of them and their drug."

Ten years after "Trainspotting," Ledger knows the junkie genre has been well covered, admitting, "I feel like we all know how to play a junkie."

But, that didn't stop the 27-year-old actor and his co-star, Abbie Cornish (likely the next great Aussie import), from researching their roles. The actors got lessons on how to properly shoot up from members of the Narcotics Users Association of Australia (really). And Ledger also credits Davies with providing additional direction, especially when the main characters are trying to detox. In one scene, Davies tell the actors, "One of you will be in a hot sweat and the other one is going to be boiling hot and then you switch. You're freezing and she's boiling hot. It feels like there are ants crawling all over you. You [defecate] your bed, you vomit."

Fun stuff.

Always one to fully commit to a role, Ledger ended up giving himself a black eye during a shower scene where his character tries to become sober again.

"The adrenaline is just pumping and you don't feel it until after," Ledger recalls. "Once I left the set ... somebody was looking at my hand ... and my knuckles were all peeled over [from the blows]. It was quite interesting."





After his well-deserved Oscar nod for "Brokeback Mountain" this past year, a flood of big Hollywood offers came Heath Ledger's way (as one would suspect). The birth of his daughter, Matilda, made it easy for the actor to say no to many of them.

"It's like, 'I've got a little baby on the way, I've got to look after my little girl,'" Ledger says of the decision he and Michelle Williams made. "And the first year of their life is just so important to be around, to establish that friendship."

But when a good project comes your way, and there's a role for husband and wife, it's hard to turn it down. Currently, Ledger and Williams are shooting Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" in Montreal. Rumor had it that the flick featured multiple characters all playing legendary musician Bob Dylan, but Ledger says the film's many story lines are just inspired by events in the icon's life and that, "It's a mind [expletive]."

It's Ledger's next role as Batman's nemesis The Joker in Chris Nolan's "The Dark Knight" that has fanboys' tongues wagging. Ledger says he hasn't paid attention to the scuttlebutt on the Web about his casting and wasn't that surprised to get the offer from Nolan.

"When he explained to me the angle he wanted to take, I was like, 'Yeah, I could do that,'" Ledger says. "[Nolan's] going to make it a lot more sinister, and we've got a little plan for him, but it's exciting. Any opportunity to don a mask is always exciting to me."

The first "Batman" picture was dominated by Jack Nicholson's acclaimed performance as the psychotic villain, but Ledger isn't intimidated by his predecessor's turn.

"I love, love, love what Nicholson did," Ledger says. "[But] his performance was catering to the style of directing the movie was made under. It was a Tim Burton film. It wasn't Chris Nolan."

Next year will be reserved for the "Batman" sequel, but in the meantime, Ledger and Williams have been raising their daughter and enjoying private time. They feel the paparazzi generally leave them alone but were shocked when they discovered they were followed to a secluded Mexican resort this summer.

"Michelle was bathing topless, and she's very sensitive and private about her body in general," Ledger says candidly. "There was this fishing boat right off in the ocean just sitting there ... and I'm like, 'What are they [expletive] catching right there?' And there was a guy with a paparazzi camera sitting in the back of the boat."

A few minutes later, the photographers were treated to Williams and Ledger giving them "the bird", and they quickly saved the image for posterity. As expected, it was immediately circulated across the Web. Surprisingly, Ledger finds the confines of New York City (or Brooklyn to be exact) to be much safer.

"You feel protected by numbers in that city," Ledger says of his safe haven. "Every now and then someone will get on the train to Brooklyn, but generally I think they just can't be [expletive] getting out there."

"Candy" opens in limited release Nov. 17.

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Source: Hollywood Hit List