It's kissing another human being. So what?
By Alexa Moses
13 January 2006


HEATH LEDGER has found himself in a curious position.

His work in Brokeback Mountain, which opened at Fox Studios last night, has catapulted him to Oscars contention. But from the audience's point of view, Ledger's performance as a cowboy tortured by his secret love for another man has materialised from nothing.

Wasn't Ledger the scrappy guy in the armour in A Knight's Tale? The lightweight in the teen flick 10 Things I Hate About You?

Ledger, in Sydney for the film's opening, is well aware of the perception.

"I did my first movie in Hollywood when I was 18 and, not having gone to drama school and not having an acting coach, I've been forced into making my mistakes on film," the 26-year-old said yesterday.

"People are like, suddenly you can perform and it's like, not - it's not f---ing sudden. I've been happily making mistakes and discovering things myself. I didn't come into this industry at the age of 35 having done 50 plays…"

Although he mumbles, Ledger radiates a polite maturity and exudes a restless energy. Perhaps it's fatherhood. He is in Sydney with his girlfriend, the actor Michelle Williams, and their baby, Matilda Rose, almost three months old.

He met Williams during the arduous filming of Brokeback Mountain, which is set in Wyoming but was shot in Canada. Williams plays Ledger's wife, who discovers her husband has a gay lover.

At the heart of the film is the characters' inability to express their feelings, which seems to fit with Hollywood's approach to gay love affairs: until now mainstream cinema has tiptoed around the issue.

Ledger had heard about the script before he read it.

"Initially when the script was handed to me there were manufactured fears and anxiety and risk kind of stapled to it," he said.

"That initially bled into my first response. But it dissipated. I realised they weren't my fears."

Although Ledger was approached to portray the more candid Jack Twist (a role that went to Jake Gyllenhaal), he found he responded to the painfully inexpressive Ennis del Mar.

"I think I was attracted to how physical this portrayal was going to have to be because he had so few words," Ledger said.

"I wanted him to be a clenched fist. I wanted his mouth to be a clenched fist. And I wanted the words to fight the way out of his mouth."

Acting the gay love scenes was confronting: "It is difficult, but it's kissing a human being, so f---ing what?" Ledger said. "Once you get the first take done, well - the mystery's out the window; let's get on with it."