Posted on Fri, Jan. 06, 2006
'It felt perfect,' Ledger says.
By Larry Ratliff
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS


When Heath Ledger read the script for Brokeback Mountain, he thought he'd be "crazy to walk away from it."

"It felt like a story that hadn't been told, which is rare. It felt perfect," Ledger recalled. "And there was a seemingly perfect director attached to it."

The perfect director Ledger referred to is Ang Lee. Having Lee at the helm made Ledger comfortable about accepting a project many considered controversial.

"I don't think I would have made this choice if it was in anyone else's hands," he said.

As for the controversy the movie might generate, Ledger says that's out of his hands.

"It's not really that controversial to me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it," he said. "I think it's unfortunate that it is. We certainly didn't make it to raise any eyebrows."

Ledger said any anxiety or concerns he had about Brokeback Mountain had more to do with the movie studio or those putting up the money to make the film than with himself.

"I never personally felt like I had a career at risk," he said. "I'm kind of willing to be a little ruthless. If anything, it felt like an opportunity for me to mature as a person and an actor, which is what I'm kind of looking for."

The project certainly has focused attention, and Oscar buzz, on the Australian actor, 26, whose career hasn't exactly been blockbuster lately.

Ledger, who plays Ennis Del Mar, said shooting intimate scenes with co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Jack Twist, wasn't as intimidating as it might seem.

"I hate to break it to you, but it really wasn't," he said. "Once you do the first take, you're kind of over it and you recognize that it's just a person. You're working. You're in cowboy boots. You're acting. You get on with it. You make the film."