I Am Heath Ledger

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1

Hello.

Yeah.

Uh, we're going to go

on a mission right now.

Uh, so will you come with me?

Oh.

You will.

So I'm going down

the street, and I get a hit.

Heath, Heath, Heath...

and, sure enough,

the next day, I said,

"I'm going to hear about

something...Heath.

There's something going on."

The next day, I got your email.

I honestly think

that the earth is off axis.

I think there's something

that is universally

out of alignment...

with what happened.

I'm not supposed to be

talking about this with you.

This is...

This isn't supposed

to be being made.

This is f***ed up.

Like, this is not something

that is supposed

to be happening right now.

I'm tearing up

Heath was

the most alive human...

and if it wasn't on the edge,

it didn't interest him.

If there wasn't a risk,

some type of risk involved,

he had no time for it.

He went all the way out

in the time that he had.

He went all the way to the edge.

Some people

are just bigger than...

the world has room for.

Still alive who you love

Still alive who you love

He already

had this vision

as to where he was going to be.

He had these little shiny stars

on the ceiling

that he put up

in this old house.

He said, you know,

"That's where I'm going to be."

He said, "I'm going

to be in the film industry,"

and he said, "I'm going

to be a film actor."

Heath used to follow

his sister Kate, you know,

all her productions

that she was at at school.

Heath being in the front row

like this, for every single one.

"That's what I want to do.

I can't wait

'til I can do that."

He excelled

in everything he did.

Chess was his biggest passion.

"Please,

just let me win one game.

Why are you just, like,

thinking of it at this level?"

Great at art,

amazing athlete...

Heath used to get into scraps.

He was a good fighter.

I remember the conversations

about Heath wanting

to leave school

and travel across Australia.

I was quite shocked

at the time because he was 17.

It was like trying

to settle a wild stallion

at the time.

You may as well

make a friend of them

and support them

as best you can and love them,

and let's hope

that everything turns out.

I've got nothing

to run away from in Perth.

I love my family.

I love my friends.

I love the city.

It's just there was all this

going on outside of that,

and I just had to be part of it.

Heath and Trevor,

they were out

to conquer the world,

the two of them.

Pretty much waited for the day

for me to finish school,

and he was like,

"Let's go to Sydney."

It was literally

jumping in our car

and planting the foot down

and just bolting out.

I wanted to just get out there

and do it.

March, march

Said march, march

From there,

things moved on pretty quick.

Fists in the air

as we march on

We're going to Bondi.

We're just starting there.

Roll together.

Come on in, boys and girls.

You get what you want.

He took me

to all these auditions,

all these interviews...

Never asked.

He just did it.

He got a role

in an American TV series, Roar.

He had the lead role.

Action!

You'll be lucky

if you live that long.

Great. Cut!

Now he's an actor.

It was serious.

We went to the Gold Coast.

We were put up in a two-

bedroom high-rise apartment

overlooking the ocean.

Money, as a 17-year-old,

was impressive.

"Wow, here we are."

Everything

kept moving forward.

Hello.

Lisa was a real woman,

very classy.

He looked up to her.

They fell in love

really quickly.

She guided him.

She could see

the potential in him.

Lisa, where are we going?

She took his hand

and opened a lot of doors.

He followed her from Australia.

She was, like, "Come to L.A."

Dumb-looking photo.

We march on

I never moved there

expecting anything to happen.

I kind of went there

with the attitude

of "Well,

I've got nothing to lose."

Heath arrived at some odd hour,

and he turns around

and looks at me with a big smile

and says "Hello!"

Of course,

the first thing I noticed

was his gigantic smile.

My roommate, Lisa Zane,

knew, in her words,

that he was going to clean up,

meaning

be successful in Hollywood.

I think

she was the first to know that.

Hello.

How was your day?

Oh, it was fun.

There's a book called

The Sentimental Education,

and I feel

that's what he got from Lisa.

Lisa took him

to the Venice Carnevale...

and they shot

8-millimeter film...

and would wear the costumes...

and, to me,

that was a part of what

created him as an actor.

I gave him my friend's script,

10 Things I Hate About You.

He read the script and said,

"I really like

the role of Patrick,"

and I said,

"Isn't Patrick the lead?"

He said,

"Yes, Patrick's the lead,

and that's the part I want,"

and when he came back

from the audition,

he said, "I got Patrick,"

and I was like, "Really?

You got the lead?"

and that's when I realized

that Heath was...

different.

No offence or anything.

I mean, I know everyone

digs your sister,

but, um...

she's without.

Maybe we should do

this another time.

Sometimes

people break through

because of one thing,

whether it's good looks

or talent or timing or...

you know, who knows,

but he sort of had

everything down.

One of the most powerful things

for an actor,

particularly for a man,

is their voice...

I've thrown a football, what,

a few times in my life, so...

And their physicality...

And their, you know,

level of masculinity,

and he had all of those things

in spades.

There was a bunch of kids

staying in a hotel.

Everyone had their own suites,

and he brought everyone

together,

so by the time I got there,

the parties were in his room.

10 Things

was when he really felt

that, "Okay, this is my career.

I'm an actor now."

By then,

he had his agent, Steve.

He knew the industry,

but he didn't really

know the industry.

He'd only been in it

for 18 months.

It was

pretty early in my career.

You know, he was

one of my early clients.

He was looking for people

that he could trust.

Home to sleep.

It was just obvious.

He just had

this great swagger about him.

So how long have

you been acting?

About...

20 years.

How old are you?

You could tell we were going

to be on to something.

So one of the things

that happens

is when you're good

at something in a movie,

everyone offers you

that same thing.

So he did a great job

being in a teen romantic

comedy, basically,

and so anything that, you know,

sort of resembled

10 Things I Hate About You

came his way,

and, of course, that's exactly

what he didn't want to do next.

He wanted to mix it up

and find a new challenge.

That moment

was a very important next step.

"Okay, what do we want

to do next?

What do we really want to do

if we have a choice?"

People in Hollywood,

they don't like to hear "no,"

you know...

and so I had a lot of fun

saying "no."

He was always very friendly.

He never seemed

out of sorts about it,

but he knew what he didn't want.

He was always very appreciative

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