In His Own Words: A Tribute to Heath Ledger
by Reg Seeton

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN INTERVIEW - 2005

Heath Ledger on what appealed to him about the script:

"Many things. Ang Lee attracted me to the script and then once I read the script it was probably the most beautiful screenplay I’d ever read, and I had a real lump in my throat. It felt like it was a story that hadn’t been put on the screen, which is rare to come across. And so all the elements were there. There was this perfect story, incredibly complex characters and character for me to kind of play, or attempt to play. And so I felt like I’d be crazy, essentially, to walk away from it."

Ledger on what he learned about the gay culture after playing a gay character:

"For one, it’s not an occupation... I could have actually taught Ennis something about loving. Unlike Ennis, I enjoy love, I’m very expressive, I’ve investigated love, and he didn’t. And I didn’t walk away, like, suddenly going, ‘Oh geez, you know what? Wow, men and men, they can express and they can love. Wow!’ I had an understanding of that. I never feared that it existed and it was never really a huge issue of mine. And so I really didn’t come out - it wasn’t some great revelation of mine that this was possible, you know."

On what he liked about Ennis Del Mar:

"I don’t know, his potential, he had great potential to love. I think the one time you really see the potential is with his kids, his children, because that’s the one form of love he’s really allowed to express, it’s not dangerous to him. And with his wife it just wasn’t really love, it was just what he thought should be love, and it was a routine that he slipped into because it was conventional. It was traditional, and obviously his love for Jack was forbidden and he hated himself for it, he punished himself for it. Essentially he was a homophobic man in love with another man. So that, I guess, I I always had faith in the love within him a lot more than he did. I think that’s what all the characters found in him too, was the potential within this masculine figure to be kind of vulnerable."

Ledger on whether falling in love with Michelle Williams was a hinderance since their characters were falling apart:

"No, no, not at all. If anything it just made it more interesting. I think it would have made it more boring if we were falling in love on screen, you know. It would have been, like, just easy and obvious. We were working against the odds here, it was out of our control. It was just something that was very beautiful and deep and we’re both very professional and we’re both there, from the beginning, with the same goals and we wanted to do the best job possible and do justice to this story. So yeah, not at all."

Ledger on becoming a father and whether it scares him:

"I wouldn’t say it’s as scary as the last five roles. I mean, it’s definitely more exciting and a lot more beautiful, and it’s definitely my greatest achievement. I now feel kind of connected to something a lot bigger than me. It’s beautiful, there’s something cosmic about it."

On whether he had to do a lot more housework with the baby's arrival:

"Yeah, happily. What else am I going to do? We’re so bloody helpless. In the birthing process, you come out just realizing how stupid and weak men are. I might as well not be in there, we’re about useless. It was funny. When you walk out, it’s such an intimidating process watching or witnessing how beautifully this primal kind of strength that women have. It just exceeds anything that’s within men. And you just feel like leaving there and going out and taking steroids and going to the gym, and then starting a war, you know. And it just explains a lot about our society. It’s like overcompensating for our lack of strength. Except I’m not starting a war, I’m doing dishes."

On what kept him on the path to success:

"I don’t know. Growing up in Perth, Western Australia, you never feel like you’re going to live beyond that city. You wake up and you go to the beach, you do your homework, you’re just a kid. I never really cared much for Hollywood or movies. I never watched movies... I wasn’t really allowed to watch movies. I think the only film I was ever allowed to watch was The Wizard of Oz and I watched that about a hundred bloody times, probably for that reason. But the curiosity for filmmaking and kind of expanding myself as an actor and my curiosity for people and portraying them just has grown from simply being involved in the industry. It was never a goal of mind as a kid. My mom and my dad, they never pushed me into doing it. They hardly knew I was doing it. They never really shined my cheeks and put on tap-dancing shoes and dragged me to a dance studio. It was just something that I fell into in a clumsy kind of way of slowly getting my coordination together and [then] I’ll continue to do that, hopefully."

Ledger on whether his parents were the kind to let him pursue what he wanted:

"Yeah, without saying that, you know. They didn’t polish my own expectations of myself, but they never prohibited me from trying anything, or being anything. They never restricted me in any way, which I’ll forever be grateful for."