“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going,” Heath Ledger stated in an interview for The New York Times in 2007, a year before he died from an accidental overdose. At the time he was preparing for his memorable role as The Joker in Nolan’s Batman. The young Australian actor passed away at the age of 28 on January 22, 2008.
Throughout his career, Ledger took part in movies that constantly challenged his talent. His role in 10 Things I Hate About You made him a teen star, and his career continued to ascend with movies like The Patriot (2000), Knight’s Tale (2001), and Casanova (2005).
Nevertheless, his role as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain (2005) put him on the list of nominees for an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
His next big project was Batman: The Dark knight (2008). The Joker was depicted by Ledger as “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.” He prepared for months for this role, and even kept a diary of his journey as Batman’s most famous villain.
“I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices –it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath –someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown.”— Heath Ledger
Ledger delved deeply into his character to the point where he had to take sleeping pills to rest for a few hours a day; eventually his efforts paid off. His performance was recognized worldwide. His sudden death meant the end of his prolific career, but it also became the uprise of a legend.
He won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for his psychotic performance, but he was never able to make his acceptance speech.
In a special article for Newsweek, the director, Christopher Nolan described Ledger as a charismatic actor who would personally thank the crew if they stayed late at night filming a scene. The director concluded:
“When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.”
Through these series of photos we are able to see Ledger’s charisma and talent, his commitment as an actor and his gracious heart.
Written by Mariana Aguilar Tiquet
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