Let's Get Serious About Heath

[oilgun]

More excruciating experiences and fewer holidays are called for, I would say.

Well said!

And what's with him asserting his heterosexuality, out of nowhere?  That's disappointing, I didn't think he was so insecure.

"I have loved, I have loved women. I know he was quite bi-sexual, he kind of flung himself around, and so that wasn't a similarity."

[CANSTANDIT]

The Alexander Technique isn't an acting thing. It's a method of learning how to hold your body correctly, of knowing why you have the sort of posture you have. I think Heath uses it in reverse, works out how a character would hold himself because of his personal issues. Once you get the right posture, a lot of the character falls into place.

Did everyone read the article about the speech coach which was mentioned on the previous Daily Sheet? She said how Jake is theartre-trained and analytical, whereas Heath flies by the seat of his pants and therefore finds the going harder as he's thinking so much stuff at the same time. She said she got him to hold his bottom lip as a tobacco-chewer does, to get that hard sound.

I've had arguments with actors about getting into a character. I reckon you can do a lot by working from the outside in. If you hold yourself as someone would, you start to find where the tensions are in your body and work out where they come from, what drives them to hold themselves like that. I think that's how Heath uses the Alexander stuff. Arse about.

ah, interesting stuff..I posted a link on the other page with some more reading on it....

[CANSTANDIT]

..and here is a Wik link on The Method-it's pretty standard today, so much easier on actors to draw on authentic experience to create an emotional state....Some people, though, can just 'do it', and it comes out right.... I see Michelle Williams in that category-she's just a natural actor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting

Enjoy! And remember who Heath has been compared to with Ennis-the great Method actors!

[Ministering angel]

And what's with him asserting his heterosexuality, out of nowhere?  That's disappointing, I didn't think he was so insecure.

"I have loved, I have loved women. I know he was quite bi-sexual, he kind of flung himself around, and so that wasn't a similarity."

Context - always look at context. It was an answer in response to the question "Can you identify with the character of Casanova in any way?" Maybe he was just pre-empting unspoken questions. I don't think he's insecure at all. Having said that, I guess the bi/gay stuff would have been tucked away in his head after Brokeback, and it's something that he might readily consider when asked such questions. Heath speaks very carefully - he chooses his words well (on the whole) and maybe he was just covering all bases.

I sound as if I'm jumping to his defence. I probably am but I don't see him as insecure at all.

[Roco]

   
Heath Ledger
Brokeback Mountain

Interviewed by Stephen Applebaum

   "It scared the hell out of me. I didn't want to kiss Jake Gyllenhaal, you know?"


Australian Heath Ledger broke through on to the international movie scene playing a sensitive hunk in 10 Things I Hate About You. Six years later, his performance as a gay cowboy in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has turned him into a hot Oscar prospect. Ledger has also recently been seen as a ghost hunter in Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, and will soon hit our screens as the eponymous Venetian Lothario in Lasse Hallström's comedy, Casanova.

What appealed to you about Brokeback Mountain?

Firstly, I thought the script was beautiful. I feel like most of the scripts for movies or books I've read concerning love are recycled and a little stale, and I thought this was a very fresh and complex version of a story of love. Also, the character of Ennis really struck a chord with me. His battle with his genetic make up, what had been passed down to him from his father and his father's father, and their beliefs and their traditions, he was fighting against all that; he was a homophobic man who loved women and men, and I found his contradictions really interesting.

In order to survive his environment he has had to really assert his masculinity, hasn't he?

Yeah, he's the most macho character I have played. That was the point: love transcends all of that.

In America especially, a lot of straight actors seem afraid to play gay characters, fearful of the impact it could have on their image. Did you worry?

Well I don't have an image, and I didn't then. But it was a very difficult decision because it scared the hell out of me. And I didn't want to kiss Jake Gyllenhaal, you know? [Laughs] And then I just felt like that's probably why I should do it, because I feel like I further myself if I'm constantly testing myself.

How did you and Jake work out the more intimate moments? Did you just go for it? Presumably there was a lot of trust involved.

Yeah, but that wasn't an issue. We obviously trusted each other and we most definitely didn't just go for it [laughs]. It was highly choreographed and thought out. It had to be. I mean, what do you do? I wouldn't want to just go for it, if that's what you're saying. But my reservations towards actually going through with it, and my nerves, actually worked for the film, because Ennis was very reserved and nervous about doing it. So it was lucky.

It also presumably takes a lot of self confidence and knowing who you are to do a role like this.

That's not the statement I'm making but yeah, I'm definitely confident in who I am.

Do you take advice when considering something like this?

Advice on what?

Whether the subject matter is what you should be tackling, because this is risky material?

That's just a matter of opinion. I don't feel like I have anything to lose, so I don't really understand what I'm putting at risk. No, I didn't really take advice. Most of the people around me were really encouraging about it.

You recently shot a low-budget love story about two junkies, Candy, in Australia. How was that?

Performing in it was a lot of fun because it was the first time I had used my own accent in a film in eight years. I had forgotten how free a thing can be and how liberating it is to not be weighed down by an accent. It was f****** fantastic! You allow yourself to breathe in your accent, you allow yourself to mumble, and improvising is, like, at the tips of your fingers. So it was really enjoyable for that reason. But it was just gruelling subject matter and some of the most gruelling scenes ever.

Do you have any plans about the kinds of parts you'd like to play? How carefully do you think about it?

I don't have that much forward planning about what I want to do next, or in the future. I guess if I'm doing something like, say, Lords Of Dogtown, then I really like to flip the scale on the next job. That's how Brokeback and Casanova really complemented each other, because Brokeback was really intense and excruciating, and Casanova was all drinking wine and eating pasta. It was like a holiday. So I've got no future plans. As long as it scares me, as long as it's something new, as long as I get to scare other people... I don't know, as long as I get to evolve and grow as an actor and as a person, that's the stuff I'm after.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/12/20/heath_ledger_brokeback_mountain_2005_interview.shtml
 
 

[Roco]

Exclusive Interview : Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger arrives in Toronto for the North American premiere of his Australian film, "Candy", without an entourage. There’s no publicist and no fanfare. “When I’m not working I don’t need a publicist”, Ledger says, as we sit in the quiet corner of a Toronto hotel restaurant. Here for just a day, he already misses wife Michelle Williams and daughter Matilda. “ Matilda is just awesome and being a father has also helped me become even more selective now with work because for me, to go away from home for a day, let alone five, is tough,” says Heath, with a wistful smile. Ledger, though, was more than happy to leave Montreal where Michelle is shooting Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan film I'm Not There, in which he also appears, to talk about "Candy". In another unforgettable performance, the now Oscar nominee plays a self-destructive heroin addict, also ferociously in love with the beautiful Candy. The actor, who hasn’t made a film in his native Australia since "Ned Kelly" or with is own accent since 1999’s "Two Hands", says it was a release to go back to Australia and work there. “I mean I’m constantly looking for material back there for that reason and it was so liberating to talk without an accent. But I also love to tell Australian stories and they’re just so very few of them back there right now, because any half decent or half talented writer, actor or cinematographer just gets ripped up and taken out of there, so the pickings are slim.” Ledger was happy to get paid far less than usual to take on another challenging role. “I really loved working on it, I was so comfortable and relaxed and I was working with wonderful people like Abbie. Cornish.”

Ledger and Cornish both took the job of research very seriously, almost too seriously it seems. ”We grabbed a video camera and went down to this place in Sydney called NUA, which is the Narcotics Users Association. There we met this gentleman who has been and still is a junkie for something like 25 years. So he took us into this little room, pulled out what looked like a rifle case, opened it up and there was a prosthetic arm in it – like a really lifelike arm, and at the end, on the shoulder, there are two tubes that have blood bags and you put fake blood into them and they’re fully functional veins in the arm that you can inject into and pull out blood. I mean they’re designed to teach nurses and stuff like that how to find veins, but they have one here to teach kids how to inject safely. And so he was like, oh, look at that vein, that’s a good one, ooh, ooh, and he was salivating at the mouth, and he was like let’s get one here, so there was that,” he recalls, laughingly. "We filmed it and so I gave the DVD to Geoffrey Rush, one to the Art Department and one to Neil, just as reference.” The film, "Candy", which is being released in the United States by ThinkFilm later this year, was loosely based on the real life experiences of addict Luke Davies “who was on set all the time and was there to say things that we wouldn’t know – like when you’re stoned high on heroine, your eyes aren’t like that but your eyebrows are up.” But the actor concedes he could have survived without too much of the research. After all, he says laughingly, “I feel that I’ve read a million books and articles and have seen a million movies and TV shows on heroine and heroine addiction, I just feel like we all kind of have seen it.”

Since the first time we met, on the set of "Two Hands" in Australia, Ledger has evolved into one of Hollywood’s true A-list stars. Last year, he joined that elite group of Oscar nominees for his sensitive and much acclaimed performance in Brokeback Mountain. Looking back, the actor is genuinely surprised that the film took off like it did. “I was definitely surprised and my expectations for the film were really down here,” he says laughingly, moving his hands towards the floor. “I was really pleasantly surprised and so grateful to have been given that opportunity and really proud of it but I’m really happy it’s all over too, because it was really exhausting,” Ledger says, recalling the awards season and the lead up to the Oscars. But he also admits almost shyly, that his nomination has opened up even more doors. “I think there’s a new level of interest kind of thing but I haven’t really acted on it, since the only thing I’ve really done since is this Todd Haynes film and The Joker.” It is his decision to play The Joker in the new Batman film "The Dark Knight" that has caused much interest in the industry. He says that ordinarily doing something like that would not be of interest to him. “I actually hate comic book movies, like fucking hate them, they just bore me shitless and they’re just dumb. But I thought what Chris Nolan did with Batman was actually really good, really well directed, and Christian Bale was really great in it.” Ledger says he’s looking forward to playing a truly evil character. “He’s going to be really sinister and it’s going to be less about his laugh and his pranks and more about just him being a just a fucking sinister guy.” Asked if he decides to do a big movie like this, because of agent pressure, Ledger pauses then laughs. “I’m sure they’re super happy that I’m doing this, because this is the first time I’ve really kind of taken something like that, so they’re over the moon. But I think it’s just going to be a really fun experience, and I love to dress up and wear a mask.” No costumes have been designed, but the actor says that “I’ve seen a few interesting designs on the look and I think that it’s going to look pretty cool.”

Who would have thought that when young Heath decided to move to Los Angeles at age 17, he would ultimately end up as a gay cowboy and Batman’s nemesis in a matter of a year or so? But life turned out differently than even he could have imagined. After all, we both moved to LA for the same reason, as I discovered during this conversation: For love. “I also moved to LA to follow a girl,” he recalls laughingly. “I did Roar, was dating a girl in the TV show, she went back to LA and I had to go with her. I stayed there and lived with for her for two years.” Then he landed his first major film role – back in Australia- Two Hands. The rest, as they, is history. Now Ledger says he’s at his happiest, both professionally and personally. “When you’re this happy everything seems to fall into place.”

- Paul Fischer

 http://www.moviehole.net/interviews/20060912_exclusive_interview_heath_ledg.html

[Roco]

Interview: Heath Ledger
Interview by Clint Morris

 
 
It’s amazing what bringing a child into this world can do for someone. Since I last sat across from Australian actor turned hot Hollywood commodity Heath Ledger - which was in 2004, to discuss Ned Kelly - he seems to have matured, found gratification and largely, discovered his voice.

Fatherhood definitely seems to agree with 26-year-old Heathcliff Andrew Ledger.

Back in his native Australia to promote his new film Brokeback Mountain, a divisive yarn about two male ranch hands that fall in love, Ledger glows more than a freshly pressed glow-in-the-dark Ghostbusters T-Shirt when asked about baby Matilda.

"It’s going great," he smiles. "It’s exhausting, but it’s a pleasure…a pleasure waking up to your daughter."

Not that Ledger’s keen on talking about his personal life - his wife, and mother to his child, is Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams - for the extent of the interview.

He rather promptly shifts the subject to the film he’s in town to plug.

What attracted Ledger to his latest role was the chance to work with acclaimed Hong Kong director Ang Lee. "I don’t think I would have done it if it had been in anyone else’s hands," he says.

Having said that, Lee wasn’t painless to work for, explains Ledger - but his toughness ultimately helped Ledger give the stellar performance he does in the film.

"There’s two sides to Ang’s direction - there’s the pre-production, which is incredibly thorough and private, and then there’s the shooting side, when he just doesn’t say anything at all. Nothing. If you haven’t done your homework - too bad. It was clear that the shooting time was his time to create."

"He’s also very set in his ways. He prepares you so much that he doesn’t cloud you with direction. There are not many instructions; it’s always just crisp and clear. He also doesn’t patronise you by slapping you on the back after every scene and saying ‘that was great, that was great… let’s try one more.’"

"In fact, he never compliments you at all. Yet, it makes you try harder - and you do end up doing better."

The role was also quite an exigent one for Ledger, but thankfully he had a great co-star in Jake Gyllenhaal, who was also a virgin to such taxing material.

"It’s not like we sat around and drank at bars together before we did the movie, but we were in the same place, and he’s a great guy - so it made things a lot easier," the actor, whose credits include The Four Feathers, Two Hands and The Patriot, admits.

From the get-go, Ledger was always attached to play the quieter of the two men, homophobe Ennis. Had he been asked to play the more confident Jack - he wouldn’t have done it.

"I wouldn’t have cast me as [Jack]. I personally, enjoyed the complexity of Ennis, the lack of words he had to express himself, his inability to love. I liked how masculine he was going to be. I liked that he was a homophobic guy that falls in love with another man. I just don’t think I could’ve played Jack."

Not that Ledger could just turn up on the set and just play Ennis. He had to do quite a bit of research, he says. "You had to have a through understanding of who you were playing. I put a lot of time into his physical traits, like his posture, or lack of, and his voice."

For Ennis’s voice, Ledger decided to do a "Wyoming accent… a little bit of Texas," adding, "Because he was so clenched as a person, I wanted my mouth to be clenched. Whenever words came out - they had to be punching their way out."

The most enjoyable part of shooting the film was getting to spend time in the outdoors. Ledger says he’s "pretty good on horseback" so enjoyed getting around on horses, and "we were working in the Rockies, so it was just majestic."

Though there has been some counterattack against the movie, Ledger’s happy that most people have reacted favourably to the film.

"I heard at one point that West Virginia was going to ban it, but that’s a state that was still lynching people until about twenty years ago," he laughs. "I think it’s proven to have the opposite effect. All of the American states, besides the odd one here and there, have ended up seeing it. It seems to have proven everyone wrong. I think people just want to see it so they can have an opinion on it. It’s really interesting…I think it’s going to turn into some kind of phenomenon."

Though he says it wasn’t an enjoyable experience to make ("because it was such a lonely story, and therefore, I had a lonely time making the film - which you kinda just drag around with you for months after"), he believes Brokeback Mountain is "the best film I’ve done, for sure."

So what’s the most fun he’s ever had on a film? "Working for Terry Gilliam (on The Brothers Grimm) was the most fun. I just adore him."

Ledger says he’s going to let wife Michelle Williams go out and work this year whilst he stays home and plays ‘Mr.Mom’ for a while. "We don’t want to be working at the same time, and I’m really in tune with fatherhood right now - so I’m going to do that."

One thing he will be suiting up for though is the upcoming Awards season, something he never saw coming: "You can’t think that far ahead when you’re making something. You’ve no idea how something is going to be perceived way down the line. If you think like that - your performance will be more manufactured. You have to pretend nobody is ever going to see it in order to really bare you soul."

 http://www.moviehole.net/interviews/20060110_interview_heath_ledger.html

[Ministering angel]

Roco, thanks for all these wonderful interviews.

[Roco]

 More than just 'the gay cowboy movie': Heath Ledger discusses 'Brokeback Mountain'
Enrique Ollero
Issue date: 2/2/06 Section: Arts & Culture


Heath Ledger has been a knight, a high school outcast and a skater, but never a gay cowboy until now. He also wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe or a SAG Award until now either. Though "Brokeback" has seen it's fair share of controversy and scrutiny, the film has been breaking boundaries and garnering a lot of critical acclaim. While some may write it off as 'the gay cowboy movie,' Ledger feels very strongly that the core story of love breaks all molds and transcends any label.

THE OBSERVER: In an interview with Details magazine Jake Gyllenhaal said your characters are not gay. What is your feeling about it?

HEATH LEDGER: It's a touchy subject. Its two men that fall in love; you can't escape that. I think what Jake meant was that,…[we] wanted to tell a story of someone who transcends the label of straight or gay; he's a soul that falls in love with another soul within the vessel of a man. And I think Jake's character was more relaxed in his situation and more willing to express it while Ennis was more confused.

THE OBSERVER: Has he always been confused?

HEATH LEDGER: I don't think Ennis is a person who ever asked any questions. I think once he met Jake's character it was an innate reaction.

THE OBSERVER: Was Ennis ever in love with Alma, Michelle Williams' character?

HEATH LEDGER: I think he believed he was and I think he felt he should be, but I don't think it at the end of the day it was the love he had with Jack.

Maybe he would have denied himself that kind of love if he never met Jack.

THE OBSERVER: It seems to have taken a lot to maintain that performance; what was your process?

HEATH LEDGER: I wanted to investigate him. I actually had to ask a lot more questions than Ennis would ever ask himself and essentially I knew more about him that he would ever know…Then there was his physical aspects like how he would walk and act, I wanted him to be like clenched like a fist, even to have his mouth be clenched, any form of expression had to be painful. I put a lot of thought into that, and of course aging, I thought was really important, if we couldn't pull that off we were up the creek without a paddle.

THE OBSERVER: There is a gay rodeo circus now, I'm not sure how long it's been around but have you looked into that? Did you research it at all?

HEATH LEDGER: I don't think anything back then that we know of. I think that Annie Proulx's short story and the script that Larry (McMurtry) and Diana (Ossana) wrote were just so beautifully thorough and descriptive of the time and the characters that I had to do very little external research. In terms of how to be a cowboy or a ranch hand, I grew up in Western Australia so there's a lot of farm folk, there's something I find universal about people who spend all day and night on horseback, physically for example when they get off the horse they still look like they've got a horse between their legs (chuckles)

THE OBSERVER: You've been offered cowboy movies before, is there a difference between a cowboy movie and a Larry McMurtry cowboy movie?

HEATH LEDGER: Sure. I'm actually not a fan of the western genre. I never grew up watching cowboy and Indian films, so I'm not actually a huge fan of like John Wayne or anyone like that.

THE OBSERVER: Is there a model you based your character off of?

HEATH LEDGER: George Bush (laughs). No, it was very obvious from the screenplay just how to play it, who the characters were, I thought anyway.

THE OBSERVER: When this was originally optioned they couldn't find anybody to take the role on. Why did you?

HEATH LEDGER: It was the most kind of complex and internal character I've been offered to play and it would take a very mature performance out of me to complete this character. It was a perfect script and involves a story that hadn't been told which is hard to find in this industry and in general. I think the story of love is just getting recycled and stale and this just hadn't been put to screen. I thought I'd be crazy to turn it down.

THE OBSERVER: Was there a worry, because of the gay sex scenes and kissing, that your image couldn't take it?

HEATH LEDGER: Not really. I had to think about it, but you know it wasn't a huge problem for me. Everyone asks you know 'what was the most difficult thing for you,' or 'physically what was the hardest thing,' expecting me to say, 'oh, making out with Jake Gyllenhaal. and it's a really obvious thing to say, but at the end of the day after the first take (pause, makes kissing motion) it was like, ok let's get on with the day. Let's get through it. And all the mystery had been taken away. It really wasn't such a big deal. And yeah, he's a good kisser.

THE OBSERVER: It's interesting you have two movies out at the same time, 'Brokeback' and 'Cassanova', that deal with different aspects of sexuality. It's an important subject to examine. Did it give you any insights?

HEATH LEDGER: Nothing really, I'm very expressive and have investigated love and you know, love is love. It's never been a problem. I could have taught Ennis a thing or two, but I couldn't. I was never shocked by the idea that men could fall in love with each other. I always knew and respected that.

THE OBSERVER: Ennis comes from a tragic place and his love with Jack was really challenged by the time they were in. Would Ennis have still ended up alone today because of the guy that he is?

HEATH LEDGER: Yeah, perhaps. I think one way or another, he's very self destructive and complex within and he just doesn't understand. I think maybe he would manifest the loneliness within.

I always thought that the struggle against his genetics, you know his dad and the generations before him and their fears, I think that had a lot to do with him. And it ultimately defeats him.

THE OBSERVER: Would the love between Jack and Ennis been as strong if they were able to live together and be with each other on a day to day basis?

HEATH LEDGER: I think for Ennis the fact that it was forbidden did not make it more exciting for him. I think the story for me was this incredibly masculine figure who had this innate love for a soul in another man.

I think the society they're in, the restrictions that surround them, their inability to break free from society's requirements of them, people's opinion on a grand scale.

THE OBSERVER: What's next for you?

HEATH LEDGER: Nothing really, just raising my daughter and that's enough work and has been most enjoyable.


 http://media.www.fordhamobserver.com/media/storage/paper827/news/2006/02/02/ArtsCulture/More-Than.Just.the.Gay.Cowboy.Movie.Heath.Ledger.Discusses.brokeback.Mountain-1595399.shtml
 

[CellarDweller115]

great additions to this thread, everyone!

[Queen_Beruthiel]

Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot,
Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote and
Gary Oldman in Sid & Nancy.

I'll agree with two of those, but am I the only one who thinks that Hoffman's Capote is all empty technique? 




Nitpick: Ang Lee is not from Hong Kong.

[pickle]

Thank you very much Roco for your posts of the all his interviews.

But... I would be grateful if you could possibly also add which publications (US?UK?AU?) those interviews are from please?

The interview by Clint Morris's one was a bit susupicious in terms of the accuracy by mentioning 'Acclaimed Hong Kong director Ang Lee ' as QB posted.

Nitpick: Ang Lee is not from Hong Kong.

Off course, he is from Taiwan!!
This simple mistake in the article makes me just think whether this is  from a gossip magazine or some sort??? and also the copyrights could belong to the publishers rather than a journalist......

[Lola]

His divorce papers from Michelle Williams aren’t even signed yet and Heath Ledger’s already got a new lady friend.

The Austrlian actor has been going out on dates with and making out in public with former supermodel Helena Christensen, who was most recently linked with Josh Hartnett.

Hungry like a cougar!

 

Someone should tell Perez Heath and Michelle were never married!  Helena is almost 40,  I wouldn't exactly call that old.

[Roco]

Heath doesn't hate comic book movies, after all.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=90305

[Roco]

Excerpt from Heath's interview in The Guardian  by Howard Feinstein


Did you see her, Judy Garland on TV?" he asks. "There was a scene on stage where she's in clown makeup singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a tight shot. That is one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen." It is with such sensitivity that he tackles his brutal and tender sex scenes with Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays his cowboy lover Jack Twist.

"It was certainly a surreal moment the first time I had to kiss Jake," Ledger says, chortling. "But once that was done, I quickly realised that it didn't make me want to run out and do it again. And you think, OK, what's the next shot? Those scenes were just a small part of the package."


http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,1680100,00.html