| Alright, Squire? Heath Ledger may get medieval on your ass with A Knight’s Tale, but in person he’s a pussycat. Meet tomorrow’s superstar today; an exclusive audience in LA. WORDS SIMON BRAUND For the past few months, it’s been very hard to ignore Heath Ledger in Los Angeles. It seems wherever you go, his gigantic face, squinting and handsome, framed by blond surfer locks, is peering down at you. In a town where towering billboards are as much a feature of the landscape as fake tits, this is not particularly noteworthy. Or rather, it wouldn’t be if Heath Ledger were a star. When the posters went up for A Knight’s Tale, writer-director Brian Helgeland’s love-it-or-loathe-it, Ivanhoe-meets-Spinal Tap medieval romp, Heath Ledger was not a star. Before A Knight’s Tale, Ledger’s résumé was conspicuously short on feature films and boasted not one leading role. There was TV aplenty, and he had, of course, created a sizeable commotion among teen audiences with 10 Things I Hate About You, director Gil Junger’s Taming Of The Shrew for the ‘N Sync crowd. He also made a big impression as Mel Gibson’s son in the otherwise risible The Patriot. Even so, his pulling power was still under review. What is equally surprising is that when Ledger was cast in the role of William Thatcher, upstart peasant who impersonates a knight in order to joust in tournaments, The Patriot was still in production and all that Helgeland and producer Todd Black had seen were rushes. The question is, then, “Was I surprised that they cast me as the lead in a big movie so early, having only seen rushes of The Patriot?” This trots off Ledger’s tongue with a jolt of irritability. Evidently it is something that he has been asked many, many times recently. “Yeah, I was surprised,” he says, sinking back into an easy chair. “But I was also curious about why they’d picked me, what their plans were and how I’d got to the top of the list. I was also excited and honoured. The one thing I wasn’t,” he says, as if anticipating another routine enquiry, “was nervous. I was more excited then nervous.” According to Mel Gibson, “Heath possesses an unlikely combination: he has incredible presence, yet he has no fucking pretensions.” Neither, unless this show of nonchalance is just an act, does he have much in the way of fucking fear. “I do get nervous,” he smiles, “but only when it comes down to my work, and those are good nerves. I didn’t feel under pressure because I was the lead in a big movie and what that might mean for my career.” Heathcliff Andrew Rufus Gregory Fitzpatrick Peter Bob Ledger III (his full name, unless one of his numerous fan sites is pulling our leg) was born on April 4, 1979, in Perth, Western Australia. He caught the acting bug from sister Katherine, and began treading the boards with the Globe Shakespeare Company in Perth, where he made a splash in the title role of Peter Pan. Attending the all-boys Guildford Grammar School, he developed a passion for hockey, for which he won several trophies. He was also selected to play for Western Australia. This proved a turning point. Forced to choose between hockey and acting, with little hesitation he chose acting. “I just loved it,” he says, leaning forward, “and kept doing it. I blinked my eyes and I was getting paid. Doors kept opening and I kept walking through them.” He left school at 16 and headed to Sydney in search of fame and fortune. A meagre portion of both came his way via his film debut, a minor part in oddball psychological surfer thriller, Blackrock. It was enough to land him the role of gay Olympic cyclist Snowy Bowles in the Australian TV series, Sweat. One of the first openly gay characters to appear on Oz TV, it’s indicative of Ledger’s attitude that he turned down another role on the show in favour of the more challenging Bowles. “[I thought] if I want to get some sort of recognition, that’s the one I should be doing,” he says. “The strategy paid off and he was cast in Fox TV’s medieval drama, Roar. Although a resounding failure, Roar’s heady mix of fantasy and swordplay put Ledger on the international map. His fan base began to swell and he was signed up by a US agency. Brian Helgeland was also taking notes. While auditioning in the States, the increasingly hot 19 year-old won the part of Jimmy in Australian black comedy, Two Hands. “You’ve apparently got to leave the country to get work,” he commented wryly. The film was a hit in Australia but failed to make a dent in the States. Even so, with teen movies all the rage in Hollywood, Ledger’s clean-cut good looks and 6’4” frame made him a very viable commodity indeed, and 10 Things I Hate About You duly followed. Yet, as a lucrative career as a teen hunk beckoned, Ledger rejected similar lightweight projects and decided to wait for meatier material. “I was living off Ramen noodles for over a year,” he says. “And it’s hard because they offer you so much money.” Eventually his resolve paid off. He beat over 200 other actors for the role in The Patriot, among them allegedly Ryan Philippe and Paul Walker. The success of A Knight’s Tale in the US has made him a fully-fledged star (yes, Columbia’s marketing gamble proved a winner), and he has another historical epic, Four Feathers opposite American Beauty’s Wes Bentley, in the can. Rumours are now circulating that he will star in Peter Weir’s forthcoming Master & Commander, not to mention a remake of Moby Dick story by Knight director Helgeland. Indeed, the big, brass ring is very much within Heath Ledger’s grasp – fame, fortune and, as Freddy Mercury once said in a song not featured on the Knight’s Tale soundtrack, everything that goes with it. “I know,” he laughs, “I don’t want to think about that. But I don’t want to not think about it, either. I don’t want to believe it and at the same time, I don’t want to not believe it.” Of course, as Mr Mercury also pointed out, what goes with it can prove neither a bed of roses nor a pleasure cruise. Even so, Ledger remains philosophical. “It bothers me a bit,” he says, “but that’s just the yin and yang of what I do. The position I’m in now, I’m dealing with the extremes of yin and the extremes of yang, but that still means you can find a balance.” The media’s interest further intensified thanks to his (now defunct) relationship with actress Heather Graham. Ledger and Graham met in Prague while he was filming A Knight’s Tale and she was shooting From Hell, alongside Johnny Depp. Again, he seems remarkably unfazed by the attention. “That’s just what they do,” he sighs. “The media look at a relationship like that and to them it spells cover sales. Plus it’s got an open ending so they’re happy to pump it up and wait for whatever ending it’ll have. That’s just the way they work. My job is to concentrate on my work and take no notice of it. I don’t read most of it and what I do see makes me chuckle. I try to find the comedy in it – and there’s a lot to be found.” It’s most un-Russell Crowe of him, but who could fail to see the humour in the following fabricated tale of brattish behaviour on a flight from Prague to LA? “Apparently,” says Ledger, “just after the plane took off I was asking for a cell phone so I could make a call, it was an emergency. No-one had one so I forced my way into the cockpit and demanded to use the plane phone to call my girl. They just make it up.” On another occasion, after Ledger, Graham and his Knight’s Tale co-star, Rufus Sewell, were snapped leaving the swanky Ivy restaurant in London, The Sun concocted an illicit affair between Graham and Sewell, simply by cutting Ledger out of the photos. “They even quoted Elton John saying how disgusted he was at Heather cheating on me in public,” he laughs. “I’m great mates with Rufus and we all had a laugh at that one. But at the same time, it is ridiculous that there’s such a need for this. But you know what?” he smiles, “so what? It’s a ruthless fuckin’ world and they’re only as ruthless as the people making this movie, you know? It’s all part of the business. It’s unfortunate and it sucks, but again, it’s the yin and the yang and it all balances out down the line.” And if it doesn’t, Heath Ledger has a contingency plan. “If it ever stops being fun,” he says, “I’ll just stop doing it. I have to enjoy what I’m doing otherwise I can’t do it. Right now, if I wasn’t doing this I don’t know what I’d be doing. Maybe photography or writing poetry. But I wouldn’t want to take either of those to a professional level; they’re too personal.” |