I Am Heath Ledger Page #3

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He had, like,

15 years of friendship

with kids that we went

to kindergarten with

that we'd graduated

high school with.

Heath always kept them close.

I was privileged

enough to go over

and see how his life was,

and it was

incredibly enticing,

incredibly alluring.

Oh, my goodness,

this has to be, like,

the world

that everyone wants to live.

Kane Manera

from The Strokes...

I think it was the first trip,

driving around, and he says,

"I've got to go

to a friend's house."

Knock on the door,

and he's got this, like,

slightly cheeky look

on his face.

Door opens.

Naomi Campbell answers.

I still have Naomi Campbell

pictures on my wall

at this point.

So I'm doing my best job

of just...

"Hey, how are ya?

Nice to meet you,"

and I'm thinking,

"I guess

this is what Heath does.

This is how it is now.

Just rolls

to Naomi Campbell's house."

Heath! Heath!

Heath's place was renowned

for having a stream

of Australian actors

and whatnots

living there.

Casting directors would ask you,

"And are you one of the Aussies

that lives at Heath's place?"

Yeah, we lived

in Los Feliz in this house

where the doors were just open,

and people would come

and stay.

Joel Edgerton and Heath

were close friends early on,

and he came over,

and Martin Henderson...

I did.

Rose Byrne,

Gregor Jordan,

you know, the director...

You would never know

who's staying at Heath's house.

Everyone and anyone

was welcome, you know?

He had such generosity

of spirit.

It's just miraculous,

the energy...

him, arms open, as always.

The Australian thing,

to me, was like,

yeah, come one, come all,

you know?

Like, hang out.

Let's make this fun.

People would stay a long time,

sometimes.

It was...

a bit longer than necessary,

but, um, but it was fun.

You've flown around the world.

Staying somewhere in L.A.

for a couple of months?

That... phew... costs a lot,

and I had nothing going on

work-wise.

Nothing.

It sort of didn't matter.

Upstairs, they had

a couple turntables.

They had a DJ setup.

"Come in.

We're going to do this.

What do you feel like?

Just chill out.

Oh, this is my record room.

This is the sunroom.

Have you heard of Nick Drake?

You've got to listen to this."

Puts it on, boom....

At his house,

he had a big record collection,

and he could have a big party,

and he would always be

at the music.

Music was definitely something

that was in him

that he... he loved.

With him, it was just

friends to hang out with

and share the journey.

He was very big

on sharing his success.

Heath's place

in L.A. was sort of

a renowned pre-Entourage

kind of entourage house.

In fact,

when I was staying there,

Adrian Grenier was there

at one of these nights.

There was a bit of drinking

and carrying on going on.

Then I often fancy

that he was doing

a bit of research

on a functioning entourage,

'cause Heath wasn't there,

so, you know, "Vinnie,"

as it were,

would've been away

making a film.

There were times

people were there, he wasn't.

I mean, he was on a set

somewhere, working on a movie,

you know, in Europe,

and his house was full.

We were in Prague.

For the first time,

we're really in Europe,

and we're living there.

We're there for pre-production.

Knight's Tale

was an interesting moment

in his career.

Amy Pascal, who runs Sony

at the time,

really, really loved Heath

and appreciated him

and wanted him in everything.

Hyah!

Forward!

Hyah!

Heath really gave

an incredible amount of dignity

to his characters,

even in a film

that's as sort of whimsical

and light, in its way,

as A Knight's Tale.

It's very hard to be

as solid as he was.

You know, at first,

it was a shock.

You know, I read it.

"Queen, 'We Will Rock You,'

rises as they enter the arena."

I think I almost

closed the script on that line

because I was thinking,

oh, it's one of those movies

that's trying to, you know,

mix the two,

but as I read further into it,

it explained itself.

The rock 'n' roll music

destroys any barriers

that are restricting us

to historical truths.

You know, it's a fairy tale.

We want the audience

to walk in there

and to be transported.

We went to Sony

for a marketing meeting

on A Knight's Tale.

Studio president,

studio executives

were all there, doing their job,

excited about the film,

excited about Heath...

very excited about Heath.

The poster and the campaign

was "He Will Rock You."

It was really built on Heath,

you know, the images,

Heath's face...

he looks like a rock star,

and the tag line,

"He Will Rock You,"

and those posters

were all over the city,

all over Los Angeles.

He was, like,

"Whoa, that's my face."

The posters were everywhere.

He knew

that would be projecting him

into the limelight.

There was a moment

where they talked about Heath

was going to go city by city

and talk about the movie,

and, you know, he was going

to be the secret weapon.

William!

I could see him getting more

and more upset, you know?

We were sitting

next to each other,

and I kinda,

out of the corner of my eye,

could tell he was getting very

uncomfortable and fidgeting,

and he finally whispered to me

that he needed to leave,

he needed to get out

of the room for a second,

"Can you excuse me?"

and he got up.

I followed him.

He was in the bathroom.

...Sitting there

just freaking out,

working out what the hell

he was gonna do,

trying to stick to his guns.

There's this thing

in Australia

called the tall poppy syndrome,

you know?

If one grows too high,

whsst,

you get cut down back to size,

and, as an Australian,

you identify with it.

If you do get too successful,

it's sort of,

there's something that's...

You feel ugly.

Being a salesman

and going out

and talking about the movie

and selling the film,

that was

the part of the business

that I think he was

least comfortable with...

Really, really

had a hard time with.

He wanted fame...

And then when he got it,

he didn't want it.

He was mortified,

and he felt owned.

His image, not their image...

Him, his face,

his heart, his soul.

I remember he told me,

"I'm not gonna be that guy.

I have no interest

in being that guy.

I'm not that guy,

and I'll show you."

Hey, do you

know what you did?

Do you know what you did?

Are you listening to me?

Do you know

what you did?

Do you know what you did?

You f***ed him up!

He gets to come in,

play this role,

and break your heart.

In the script Monster's Ball,

he felt there was a journey

that would take him

to another place, another level.

He saw something about himself

that attracted him,

that he wanted

to experiment with,

he wanted to play with,

and that gave him

a perfect opportunity.

He's a supporting role,

but I remember him

more than anything else

in the movie,

and he didn't do much.

He was sort of deadpan,

you know?

He didn't do a lot

of busy performances.

That's the power

of Heath Ledger,

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