I Am Heath Ledger Page #7

---

Heath was...

I mean, he was gone.

He was all things Nick

at that time.

I mean, he had every record.

He had interviews.

He was completely immersed

in Nick Drake.

Always playing his music

and talking about the visuals

that he would put to this music.

It escalated more and more

and became

a huge passion for him.

He'd always had this thing

for these artists,

people who died at, like, 27,

like Kurt Cobain

and Janis Joplin

and this whole list of people.

At a young age, he was like,

"I'm just like these people."

It was weird.

I remember him saying,

"I've got a lot to do.

I don't feel

like I have much time.

I just don't think I'm going

to be around that long, so...

Don't know why.

I've just got

to get things done now."

I guess our story together

kind of chronicles

his love life,

his struggles

with love and a relationship

and they're trying to manage

both his professional life

and his private life.

It's a bit of a double-edged

sword, I believe,

'cause a part of you

wants to stay at home

and do nothing

for the rest of your life,

but as soon as you're there,

you want to get out

and start working.

There's a fascination

and an addiction

to the lifestyle.

Heath brought something

to the part,

and it wasn't

the movie star part

that he brought.

There was a credibility

and vulnerability

to his performance.

He was always able

to show his struggle or conflict

in whatever character he played,

that he personalized

the performance.

Not with the girls.

Yes, Robbie.

- No.

- Robbie!

You're not

taking my kids!

Relationships happen.

Relationships go wrong.

If you haven't

been through it yet,

you don't know

how to adjust and cope,

and then you're in

the father position,

partner position,

and you're doing things

that aren't quite right.

I'm Not There

is really art imitating life

in such a beautiful,

painful way.

I feel he was struggling

with being able to give

Michelle and Matilda

all the attention he wanted to.

Their breakup

was tough enough.

I really felt the...

for Michelle,

a lot of stuff

was projected on her.

It was pretty

heartbreaking and upsetting.

Things were unraveling

for Heath.

That whole idea

of controlling your destiny,

designing your destiny...

the unraveling

was not part of the design,

and he couldn't control it.

So his lack of sleep

and needing to sleep

had a big effect on him.

He had to take

medicated sleeping,

which wasn't good for his body.

I ran into him in New York.

I hadn't seen him

for a couple of years,

and wow, Heath has... changed,

but the way he has changed

kind of, like, got me

a little concerned, you know...

and I looked at him

and I thought, wow...

with a bit of a concern,

you know?

We had

a few tough times together,

like, sadnesses in life.

Music is absolutely healing.

Music was a way

for him to heal himself.

Nick, can you play

River of Life?

There you go. Yay!

River of Life.

If you asked Heath who he was,

he would tell you

he was an actor,

he was a filmmaker,

and he was a brother.

He was a brother to me,

and to many.

I guess

being friends with Heath,

someone so big and glamorous

and... action hero

and all that stuff...

The fact that he carried

that gentility in his heart

and made that

an active principle for himself

gave me certain strength too...

And he would

always encourage me.

Like, I'd see a wave coming,

and he'd say,

"Don't be afraid to fall..."

and that was a real important

aspect of who Heath was.

He didn't have

that kind of fear.

He was going

to direct his first film,

which was The Queen's Gambit,

about a chess player.

His love of chess

was, you know, legendary.

I always felt that he was

five moves in front of me.

By the time

he was 10 or 11 or so,

it was pretty hard

to actually beat him.

He was

an amazing chess player,

and it's something

that we did every day.

Whether we were

together or apart,

we were playing chess online

or chess face to face.

Heath was trying

to achieve a grandmaster status

and was only a few points away

from achieving his goal.

When he read that story,

Queen's Gambit,

he thought, wow, this could be

the right size film

to take a bite and direct it.

So this is about

a young chess player

who is addicted

to drugs, to pills.

He understood that story

from inside out.

He wanted to use chess

as a metaphor

for the girl's life,

and he had something to say.

There are many actors

that want to direct

that almost

are the actor directing,

but he had the ability

to communicate his ideas

that he could translate that

into a filmic story.

The only time that I'm alive

and living and expressing

and feeling and relating

is when I'm on-set

in that time

between "Action" and "Cut."

I called Heath,

and I said, you know,

"This is what's happening.

They're putting together

the next Batman film,

and the Joker's

going to be the villain,

and, you know,

is that of interest?"

And I remember him,

you know,

it was like...

there was no pause.

It was like, "Absolutely.

I want that.

How do I...

you know, what do we do?

I'll get on a plane.

I'll fly out.

I want to meet with Chris,"

you know.

"Can you get me in a room

with Chris Nolan?"

I'd already seen

this world he'd created

in Batman Begins,

and so I knew

there was an opportunity

for a new version of the Joker,

and that excited me,

and I also knew instantly

what to do.

So we had about a month,

roughly two months.

He had already started

to occupy the character.

I locked myself away

for six weeks in a room,

and I kind of came up

with this creep.

Walk around like a madman

and finding posture,

finding stance.

Finding his voice

is very important,

because when you find the voice

you find the breath

within the voice.

It's like, man,

the Joker, though.

Jack Nicholson

did the Joker, man.

I said,

"How do you tackle that, like,

without just

doing a version of Jack?

I mean, how do you even

talk or laugh or..."

I was sitting there, walking,

just thinking,

and I suddenly hear,

"Do you want to know

how I got these scars?"

I'm like... I look at him,

and he's kind of walking,

holding his shirt,

and he's like, "My daddy

was a drinker and a fiend,"

and he gives me this look,

and...

man, goosebumps,

chills run down me,

and he does

that little monologue for me.

"Why so serious?"

he finishes.

I was just, "Holy..."

and I jump into the street.

Whoo! Yelled it out.

I'm punching him in the chest,

and he's like,

"Don't tell anyone."

He turns to me,

and he says,

why so serious?

He comes at me

with the knife.

"Why so serious?"

He sticks the blade in my mouth.

"Let's put a smile

on that face,"

and...

Why so serious?

When we were shooting

the scene

where he comes into the party,

there was a crowd

that side of the camera

and this side of the camera.

It was a very large crowd, so...

he didn't expect it

to be so big.

He said, "This feels

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes