“Doors kept opening and I just kept walking through them”

Heath Ledger Interview
By EC Gladstone

Heath Ledger is the picture of calm. Strolling into a suite at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel, the 21-year-old actor, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, jeans and sandals, looks tanned, rested, and ready. You would have no idea looking at him that he is at the center of a whirlwind. Having just flown in from the Prague set of Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale, Ledger will scale a mountain of publicity for his new film The Patriot (he costars with Mel Gibson) in LA and in New York, before returning to the four-month long film shoot, which has shut down production just so he can be here.

Ledger is being called a new Mel Gibson, and meeting him in person, it’s not hard to see why. The tall, curly blond haired Australian actor shares a steel gaze and a strong jaw with the box office star, and measures up in poise, sense of humor, and healthy attitude. Ledger is also instantly philosophic about the attention.

Considering that the interview began on a hotel room balcony (with construction workers jackhammering nearby) then continued in the midst of The Patriot’s premiere party—where we were joined by Ledger’s dad Kim—it’s amazing that we were able to manage as in-depth a conversation as we did.

Eric Gladstone: OK Heath, let’s rock and roll.  So I realized after we first spoke that I’ve seen Blackrock.

Heath Ledger: Oh did you, how did you get, how did you see it?

E: Sundance. A couple of years ago, three years ago maybe. Never came out here did it, it’s a shame… So–what’s your wrist band say?

HL: Oh it’s, uh… Guilty. Someone just gave it to me, I don’t know where they got it from.

E: You’re 21?

HL: Yeah.

E: When’s your birthday, is it coming up?

HL: No its just been, April. 12th of April.

E: Happy Birthday, belated.

HL: Thanks.

E: You told me that you’re from Perth? Born and raised there?

HL: Yeah, till about sixteen.

E: And then where?

HL: I drove from Perth to Sydney, with my best mate, Trevor.

E:  Was there anything specific that prompted you to move to Sydney?

HL: No I just wanted to experience life. It was really about exploring life. And my job was a medium for me doing that, it was an excuse to get out and just do that.  And that’s all, I just wanted to get on that train that was flying past at ninety miles an hour.

E:  Did you finish school?

HL: Well I did my final year mark at a year early and then left.

E:  How long was it in Sydney before you got a gig?

HL: Like four months.  No it was only like two months.

E:  Was it hard, were you worried, were you nervous?

HL: No because… I didn’t even worry about it.  I didn’t think that I was going to be ending up here.  I didn’t have any expectations to end up here, so nothing was really hard about it, it was just living.  I just need to eat, so I needed to work, and that was my work.

Continued in part  2

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview Part 2
By EC Gladstone

EG: What are your parents’ names, what do they do?

HL: Sally and Kim.  Kim Ledger is my dad. Dad’s in the engineering industry. He designed a crusher for mine sites.  And uh, he started a engineering company called Ledger Engineering. And he’s built and raced racing cars for the last 30 years.

EG: So what was growing up like, do you have any brothers and sisters?

HL: I have three sisters, one older, two younger.  All adorable.  What was my growing up like?  Fun, I loved it, you know, had so much fun.  Perth’s an amazing city to grow up in.  Yeah, it’s so relaxing and so chilled out. Very green, very blue.  It’s like, in between freeways there’s like manicured grass. It’s really a sweet, sweet city.

EG: So, what kind of kid were you?

HL: Same as I am now, I’m still a kid. Yeah I was very active, yeah, extremely.

EG: What kind of stuff?

HL: Everything from Australian rules football to hockey, rugby, tennis, cricket.  I did cricket to get out of the cadets at school.

EG: The what?

HL: Cadets. Which is, we had a military corps at school, and they taught 16 year old kids how to fire semi-automatic weapons and throw hand grenades. I didn’t find logic in that, so I played cricket instead, to get out of it.

EG: You got out of it by playing cricket?

HL: Yeah, because it happened to be the same day that they played their matches against other schools was the day that they trained and did their, you know, line ups and stuff.  Push-ups.

EG: Were you any good at it.

HL: Cricket?  I was OK, yeah, I was alright.

EG When did you decide you wanted to act.

HL: Can’t remember deciding. I just got into it, I just started doing little plays, and stuff like that. I really enjoyed it.

EG: Like in school?

HL: Yeah schools, and little outside amateur theatre companies and stuff and, I just loved it, loved it. And I just kept doing it, it was just a hobby, and uh, I blinked my eyes and I was getting paid.  And then, I just kept having fun and still am. That’s it.  Didn’t train.

EG: Tell me about your first acting role.  Peter Pan was it?

HL: I think so.  It was, yeah, I guess so.

EG: You played Peter Pan?

HL: Yeah. [laughs]

EG:  When was it you decided that you loved acting and wanted to do it?

HL: Um, I don’t know, I can’t remember, I just loved it, I just had so much fun with it.  And then I blinked my eyes and it was like, professional, and that was it, and I just kept following it, and doors kept opening and I just kept walking through them.  That’s it.  You know.

EG: A stroke of luck.

HL: Yeah, but you create your own luck, you know.  The doors are there but you got to go through them.

Continued in part  3

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview Part 3
By EC Gladstone

EG: Where are you living now?

HL: Prague.

EG: Just wherever you’re laying your hat? No fixed address?

HL: No its true, yeah, no fixed address, I got bags.

EG: How’s Prague been?

HL: Oh it’s cool.  Yeah, it’s a beautiful city, I had no idea what it was going to be like before I got there. I hadn’t really looked into Prague ever before.  But it’s gorgeous, its one of the only cities that wasn’t touched during WWII, wasn’t bombed at all.  So it’s completely preserved. Buildings from the ninth century, you know.  It’s gorgeous.  Completely tourist-run, but it’s great, the beer’s great.  They’ve got amazing beer, it’s like 20 cents a beer, and that’s the most expensive beer.

EG: Coming from an Australian–you take your beer seriously there.

HL: Yeah, it’s a national sport.

EG: How long have you been there in Prague?

HL: Two and a half months.

EG: How much more have you got to go?

HL: Another two months.

EG: Long shoot.

HL: Yeah, I was there a month before shooting.  Rehearsals, and just getting to know the rest of the cast. Um, yeah it is a pretty long shoot, it’s a fun shoot, but I am working with this amazingly talented bunch of actors, and an extremely cool, laid back director, and amazing crew and, it’s just, it’s so much fun, it really is.  Hard work. Yeah, I’m in armor all the time.

EG: You’re in armor all the time?  What’s that like?

HL: Heavy, hot.

EG: Did they  have a suit made to fit you?

HL: Um, they do, but at the beginning of the movie, when I first start jousting, I’m wearing the armor of Sir Hector, which I was a squire to, and he dies and so I get in his outfit and pretend to be him. And from there, we kind of use his stuff for a while until we earn a bit of cash after we win a few jousts.  And then I get my good suit of armor.  But I haven’t got there yet. We’re shooting it sequentially, but we’re still in the crappy loose stuff that’s turning my vertebrae into shit.

EG: Tell me about jousting, what’s that like?

HL: Interesting. It’s fun, it’s wacky. They were fucking nut cases, I can’t believe they did it. You know, you’re charging on the back of a horse with this big fucking pole.  The stunt dudes are actually really hitting each other.  Like running into each other
with full power in the armor and just breaking the (makes sound like “whshew”) on their chest.  Crazy, yeah.  It’s just another wacky skill that I picked up, you know, along the line of horse riding and musket firing.

EG: I was going to say, you’re on horses again.

HL: I know, I know, I love my horse.

Continued in part  4

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview
By EC Gladstone

EG: You were telling me when we met at ShoWest that you’d done horse riding before.

HL: Yeah, yeah.  I had done it before on a couple of jobs I had done previously, and I uh, I had done occasionally, you know with some friends and stuff like that.  Up here in the hills.  Up in Beachwood [Canyon], there’s a horse ranch up there.  Yeah, and it takes you all through the hills, and up through the Hollywood sign, and it takes you above Griffith Park, to the highest peak you can get up there.  And I had a friend who was working at the horse ranch, so every night, they’d shut down at six or seven.  We’d go out there, and you know, just jump on the horses and just ride through the night.  Through the paths, everywhere.  Yeah its cool, its beautiful.

EG: What do you like about it?

HL; About horse riding? Jeez, you know, its like, when you ride a motor bike, its kind of like that, except for you really feel like your riding something in the hills. You feel the power when you’re stroking your filly.  I don’t know what I like about it, it’s just fun I guess.  I don’t know if I’m going to buy a horse but…

EG: What do you do for fun these days? Do you get to do anything?

HL: I take photos.

EG: Of?

HL: People.

EG: In Prague?

HL: Oh yeah.  Loads in Prague, yeah, just can’t stop shooting in Prague.

EG: Just for fun or is it something you think you’d do sort of more
Seriously?

HL: Um, well it’s serious fun.

EG: More than just snapshots?

HL: Yeah, oh yeah, I got like, tons of cameras, and you know, I go through like 20 rolls of film a week. Which isn’t as much as the average photographer, but when you’re working six days a week, it’s quite a lot.

EG: Tell me about The Patriot and working with Mel.

HL: Um, it was a wonderful, wonderful experience in my life, it really was. I mean working with Mel really opened up a lot inside of me, in terms of discovering how to relax with oneself in your working environment. Keeping your head clear and—[to construction workers] fucking shut up! Christ—speaking of keeping your head clear!

EG: That was well timed.

HL: And, you know he’s such a gentleman, professionally and socially, he is really wonderful, and uh, you know that’s it. I mean, all the people- everyone on that movie, Roland and Dean were just fabulous. So chilled out, so relaxed.

EG:  When you first went up to the role were you nervous about working with Mel?

HL: I was, yeah, I couldn’t help but be nervous, you know it’s like Mel Gibson.  But he puts you at ease straight away, makes you laugh, smile, all that shit.

Continued in part  5

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

EG: The story is that you walked out of the first audition.

HL: Yeah, I was doing a really crap reading, woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and I just, I was wasting my time, so I stood up and left, and said ‘I am extremely sorry and extremely embarrassed about doing a lousy job and I got to get out of here.’  And so I stood up, shook their hands and walked out. And I guess they just, were curious, you know rang back and said, ‘Hey come back and show us what you really can do then.’  And I was like ‘fuck!’

EG: Some people are sort of calling you the next Mel Gibson, potentially. How does that feel?

HL: I don’t know, it doesn’t feel anything. I don’t feel anything from it. You know it’s just what people call me, I guess, or have called me.  I don’t know, whatever. It would obviously be an honor, because he’s awesome. But, um, they’ve said that about everyone.

EG:  How would you compare your own relationship with your dad to your relationship with Mel in the film?

HL: Uh, I mean I took similar stands, but you know, my dad is like my best mate.  There are similar comparisons, but you know, only the cliché ones.

EG:  Your parents split up when you were young.

HL: Yeah when I was like ten, I guess.

EG:  Was that hard to deal with?

HL: No, it’s basically just so human, you know.  I’ve dumped out with my girlfriends in the past.  Same deal, bigger scale.

EG: What’s that from [pointing to a scab on his right index finger].

HL: That? That’s from…oh, I did this on an ax, on set. I peeled off a piece of skin. I’ve got a lot of battle scars lately from swords and shit. Sword fighting. Yeah, well there’s a lot of metal, you know, so you’re always chipping yourself and shit.

EG: So you’re looking to do something a little easier next time out?

HL: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

EG: I just watched Ten Things I Hate About You, which I thought came out really good.

HL: Did you?

E: Not as much like the Shakespeare as I thought it was going to be.

HL: Well, its not really Shakespeare.  It’s a loose adaptation.

EG: What was working with Julia Stiles like? I’m just about to interview her. It looked like you were having a lot of fun.

HL; Send her my love. Oh yeah, she was really great to work with.  You know, she’s a really smart girl.  She’s really smart, gorgeous, extremely level headed. She just has such a lovely wisdom about her, with her art, with her craft.  In life, in general, she has such wisdom. In a deep way, not like out of a book, she’s got it together in her head and her heart.

Continued in part  6

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

E: Keri Russell I also might be talking with soon.  And uh, you did Roar with her, right?  Which I’ve actually never seen.

HL: Yeah, not a lot of people did [laughs… then spills out an entire box of matches trying to light his cigarette] You have no idea, I spill shit, I drop matches, I break glasses like you would not believe.

E: Are you clumsy?

HL: Oh yeah, hopelessly clumsy. Julia’s great, I had so much fun working with her.  And Keri, she’s a sweet, sweet girl.  Yeah.

E:  After 10 Things, you turned down a lot of roles.  Anything you regret turning down?

HL: No.

E: It was about a year?

HL: Over a year.

E:  You were just sort of confident throughout the whole thing?

HL: Not at all! It was, I would rather do nothing than do something I was unhappy with. I would do a bad job. I learned, I get bored really easy.

E:  What did you do with your time?  Did you have jobs?

HL: No, I just sat around, hung out with mates, took loads of photos, that was it.

E:  Do you want to do something with the photos someday?

HL: No…uh maybe, I don’t know.  For now, they’re just gifts.

E: What about personal life now, do you get any of it?

HL: Do I get any of it?

E: Do you have one?

HL: Of course I do, everyone does, you know, to some degree.  Oh, God yeah, I, you know. I seem to think I live in it all the time.  Actually. Don’t you?

E: Well, not when I’m at the office.

HL: This isn‘t your personal life?

E: No, would that it was.

HL: So you’re not thinking personally?

E: No, because if I was thinking personally, I would probably just be having a chat with you, because you seem like a really nice guy.

HL: You can do that.

E: Yeah, but I can’t because I’m under the gun time-wise.

HL: That’s alright

E:  And I’ve got ask you things like… ‘Have you read anything interesting lately?’

HL: I have, actually. I read this book by Dan Millman, called The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior. And it says on the book, ‘a book that will change your life.’ And it does, it will. It’s really amazing.

E: How so?  What’s it about?

HL; It’s quite, it’s very Zen-orientated.  You know, it’s very metaphorical.  It’s the true story, he was like a world gymnastics champion, and he meets this old man at a service station one night, who he names Socrates.  And he visits him for like years and years and he ends up having this relationship with him for like ten years, and he teaches him about fundamentals of his brain and his heart and his soul. And its very deep and its about loosening up and not letting anything get to your head, and uh, being very conscious about everything you do.  About, if you light a cigarette, concentrate on lighting that cigarette, and concentrate on doing this, and, you know, don’t lose track of your thoughts. It’s a great book, really great book.

Continued in part  7

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview
By EC Gladstone

EG: What’s the last movie you saw?

HL; Uh, Man on the Moon, actually, on the plane. It was alright.  You know, Jim Carrey was good.  I don’t know much about um, Andy Kaufman, because we didn’t really get a lot of him in Australia.  So I don’t really have anything to run him off.

EG: Listen to any music?

HL: Oh loads I mean, my favorite kind of stuff, I guess, is like Pixies, and Beck, and uh, like Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin, and The Doors. Led Zeppelin.

EG: What’s the last CD you got.  Anything new?

HL: Um, I can’t remember the last one I bought. I haven’t bought any CD’s in Prague – did I?  Actually I bought the David Holmes CD.  He’s awesome. He went around New York with a DAT machine and recorded all those people in the streets, and mixed it. It’s really good.

EG: Any words of wisdom about keeping your head on straight?

HL: Work as if you don’t need the money, love as if you’ve never been hurt, and dance as if no one’s watching.

EG: Who said that?

HL: “I don’t know, its uh… I did. I just said it…[Laughs]

We continue at The Patriot premiere Party. Heath’s just been congratulated by Cher, and is holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

EG:  When you first got the Patriot role, were you nervous about working with Mel?

HL: Yes I was, funnily enough.  Funny you ask me that question again, that’s funny.  No yeah, you’re right, I was, I was very nervous, only because it was Mel Gibson, a guy that I always looked up to I guess you could say, it was Mad Max.  And, you know, he puts you at ease straight away, he cuts through the ice, he makes you smile, makes you laugh, and you’re comfortable all of a sudden.

EG:  How did you get that bond with him that really seems like a father and son thing?

HL: We didn’t you know, go fishing or anything to like create a father and son thing, it just kind of happened, it was like a mutual thing that we both understood. It just formed.

EG:  What’s your relationship with your own dad by comparison?

HL: Oh, its wonderful, and he’s here, he’s here somewhere.

EG: Yeah, I want to meet him.

HL: No, you won’t. [laughs]

EG:  [as fireworks are starting] How does it feel to be surrounded by all this American-ness.

HL: Pretty boring.  No I’m just joking.  Its fun, man, it’s festive.  You really do feel it. You can’t help it. Right now, it’s like the perfect moment, to ask me that question.  As the fireworks are spitting up.

EG:  You’re learning guitar now, is that right?

HL: Yeah!

EG:  What kind of stuff are you playing?

HL: Well, now right now I can play a little bit of Doors and…. I’m just getting there, you know, I mean I can jam right now with my basic chords,and I am slowly learning songs.  It will be a while.

—————

Continued in part  8

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview
By EC Gladstone

E:  I read somewhere else that you got tap shoes?

HL; Yeah for fun. Just for fun.

E:  So you don’t have aspirations to do a musical or something like that.

HL: No.

E:  You seem like an awfully confident guy for somebody who is 21.  Where does that come from?

HL: Um, just not giving a shit, I guess. I just see the humor in everything and I don’t take a lot that serious, and that’s it.  And if it’s confidence, then it’s confidence.

E:  So you are still in the middle of making A Knight’s Tale…

HL: Yeah, I’m going back tomorrow morning.

E:  Do you feel more pressure having a film on your shoulders, so to speak?

HL: No. No. No.  You know, it’s like you’re doing the same thing when they call action and cut, it’s the same thing.  You just don’t think about that stuff. I don’t.  Well, now I am.

E:  Because of me, you mean.

HL: Yeah.

E:  Sorry about that. What’s the weirdest thing anyone’s asked you in one of these things?

HL: I don’t know… Do you have a pet kangaroo?  Would you ride a kangaroo to school?  Yes, No.

E:  Are you feeling any pressure in terms of all this attention?

HL: No, no, I just come back and I am like one day here, this is all very weird, and then I just fuck off and I go do my thing, and I hang out with my mates, and I go back to normal.  I become the donkey -fucking mate of my friends and that’s it.

E: You’re doing Four Feathers next, right?

HL: Yup.

Eric:  That’s going to be in Morocco? It’s kind of like a mystical tale, or something?

HL: It’s a long story. Do I have to explain it?  My head’s fucking absent right now, and its like, ugh, jet lag has just kicked in now.

E:  Who’s the coolest person you’ve met so far?

HL: Jack Nicholson.  I met him a couple of times, just at parties and stuff like that.  He’s a cool cat.  Yeah, he doesn’t give a shit.

E:  Any aspirations in terms of something you’d like to do, someone you’d like to work with, anything like that?

HL: I don’t know.  There’s so many of them, you know, it’s just fuckin’ so hard to say who’s your favorite actor, who’s your favorite director… I can’t, it’s impossible. I respect so many different
actors and filmmakers for different reasons that its hard to just put a finger on one thing.

Continued in part  9

Read More

-FF-
copyright 2000, ECG

Heath Ledger Interview
By EC Gladstone

EG: Would you like to go back and do more work in Australia?

HL: Yes, Yes– This is my dad.  Hey, dad, come say hi to the interviewer.

Kim Ledger: Hi, guys.

HL: You should say my son’s a good boy.

Kim: My son’s an excellent boy. [laughs] Always had been.

EG:  Did he give you any trouble when he was a lad?

Kim:  Always, always, always gave me trouble.

EG:  What’s the most embarrassing thing he ever did?

Kim: Wow, there’s so many of them, we don’t really know, we just couldn’t start, we’ve had such fun, haven’t we?

EG:  Was he always this confident?

Kim: Always, no matter what he does.

EG:  Does he get that from you?

Kim: Nah, no he’s taught me a lot.

EG:  What did you think when he decided to pack up and move to Sydney?

Kim:  Am I allowed to swear on that thing?  I shit myself.

EG:  Were you worried for him?

Kim:  Yeah! of course.  I was worried for me as well–I was missing him like hell.

EG:  What did you think of him and Mel in the film?

Kim:  Great chemistry.  Great chemistry.  Great Chemistry.  I thought it was very good.  I’m going to have to have a talk to Mel later, because I would’ve preferred that he brought him back for me, I didn’t like the dying scene.

HL: Yeah he should have done that CPR course.  He should have.

EG:  So are you having fun tonight?

Kim:  Yeah, it’s excellent.  I mean this is the first big thing we’ve been it, like this, it’s just amazing.

Heath gets drawn into another conversation, and I finish with Kim and give both my good wishes.