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HEATH SEEKER
By Lucy
Sweeney
Having upstaged
Mel Gibson in The Patriot, Heath Ledger takes the lead in this week's medieval
caper A Knight's Tale. Lucy Sweeney talks to the Aussie hunk.
It's not difficult to see why Hollywood is tying itself into a tizzy over Australian actors such as Heath Ledger when you meet the man face to face. A towering 6ft 4in, with floppy, just-got-out-of-bed blonde hair and a chiselled face topped off by a cheeky grin, Ledger is, to say the very least, a ride. If you'll excuse my Irish.
"I don't actually think about how I look that often," smiles the 22-year old Perth-born actor. "I have to think about it sometimes, because my body, my face, are part of my trade, if you know what I mean. But I don't want to worry about such things, because you could go pretty crazy doing such things. I've been in LA long enough to see that."
That Heath Ledger is already a major player in Hollywood, having only arrived there three years ago, is pretty remarkable. Having made an impact in his native Australia, a move to New York landed him a part in Two Hands, a thriller ironically being shot back in his native land. Even after 10 Things I Hate About You (a smarter-than-your-average-teen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew) turned Ledger into a pin-up, he spent a year and a half living "hand to mouth" in New York, waiting for the right role to come along.
"I just knew that it was crucial that I make the right decisions early on in my career," offers Ledger, "and that I didn't want to have any regrets later on. It would have been easy to make a quick buck, but the sort of movies I was being offered would have looked pretty embarrassing on my CV."
And let's not forget the TV series either, Ledger seriously considering signing on for a five-year run of the teen sci-fi drama Roswell.
"Yeah, I got it into my head that I could probably do that for five years, and then move on," he smiles, "but I'm sure I would have went nuts by the end of the first season. That's what'll happen to you when you're hungry and cold though; I really needed the money, and Roswell just looked like a better move than porn. But only just."
The role that Ledger finally settled on was that of the squire who masquerades as a knight so he can fulfill his childhood passion for jousting in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale. A decidedly MTV take on medieval times, the movie opens with a rousing singalong to Queen's We Will Rock You. It's that kind of movie.
"I thought that was a really brave thing for Brian to do, actually," offers Ledger. "I knew that some people would have a problem with it – there's another scene where a banquet dance gradually fades into Bowie's Golden Years – but that was part of the attraction for me. This wasn't going to be just another swashbuckling affair; there was a sense of humour here, a sense of devilment. I think it's a cracking movie, but then, I am in the leading role, so I will say that, won't I?"
That Ledger is now a leading man has meant that he's unlikely to have another year and a half of living almost down and almost out, his next role, in Shekhar Kapur's update of the 1939 war epic, Four Feathers, proving just how far he's come.
"It's an incredible movie. I'd seen Shekhar's Elizabeth, and I was completely blown away, so when this role came up, I jumped at the chance. It was a difficult shoot, unbelievably hard at times, but Shekhar runs a tight ship, and you soon realised that it's all going to benefit the movie. I'm starring alongside Wes Bentley and Kate Hudson, and I can't wait for this one to hit the screens."
That A Knight's Tale didn't set the box-office alight in the US may have something to do with Ledger's unbridled enthusiasm and high hopes for Four Feathers, but you get the impression he is genuinely proud of his work. It was whilst shooting A Knight's Tale in Prague last year that Ledger met and fell in love with Heather Graham, who was there shooting the Jack The Ripper tale, From Hell. It seemed like a fine romance, even if Graham had just broken up with another hunky actor, Ed Burns, the two having proclaimed their intention to marry. Ledger recently broke up with the rather attractive Heather.
"It just didn't work out," he offers cautiously, "which is always a shame. But we had a good time together, we added to each others lives, and now we've moved on. End of story."
Any lessons
learnt? "Yeah, try to avoid smooching in public, because it tends to set
camera flashes off. Love – and anything else you get up to behind closed
doors – should be kept secret. Unless you're the career-climbing type."
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