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HEATH WAVE,
June 2000
by Nisha Gopalan
"It got to the point where I had, like, no money," says Australian-born actor Heath Ledger. "I was like, 'Shit! I'm screwed. I've got nothing. Nothing.' " This was just last year, after he got his big Hollywood break, in 10 Things I Hate About You, in which he played the smartass high school delinquent who woos a shrewish Julia Stiles. His budding popularity was confirmed by the Internet, where a ring of fan sites (such as "Heath Ledger Is Hot" and "Heath Ledger Estrogen Brigade") suddenly materialized. So why couldn't he find a job?
"I had nothing but offers to do all these fucking teen movies and television series," says the 21-year-old. "There's little depth in those scripts. You can only take the psyche of a teenager to a certain level." Ledger's look today is that of any self-respecting actor who's quietly contemptuous of his heartthrob status: There's stubble on his boyish face, his surfer blond hair unfurls in all directions, and a baggy ensemble hangs on his lithe frame. A dangling cigarette adds the final touch. "My expectations were high, and I guess I put myself in a class that I wasn't in," Ledger adds with a shrug. "But saying no turned out to be a lot more valuable than saying yes."
No kidding. After holding out for a year, Ledger beat out nearly 200 actors for his role in this summer's $100 million The Patriot, in which he stars as a zealous Revolutionary War rebel at odds with his battle-weary father, played by fellow Aussie Mel Gibson. "Heath knows exactly what he's doing and what he wants," director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) says. "He has a manly way of doing things that's similar to John Wayne."
In fact, much of Ledger's Patriot training was a nod to the macho cowboy way-wearing peculiar hats, riding steeds, and wielding firearms. "In one scene, I jump off a galloping horse and go straight into a run while firing a rifle and a pistol," he says rhapsodically. "Hey, while you're still young, you might as well get out there and break a limb." The real lure, of course, was working with Gibson. "The movie is an intense, sad war epic, but the set was constantly happy and that was because of Mel," Ledger says, turning serious. "I learned so much from him-his manners, the way he treats the business. And he's a great father. It was wonderful to work with someone like him and to look at him and realize you can live your life like that."
It seems
that Ledger, who goes medieval in his next film, A Knight's Tale,
already shares certain leading-man qualities with Gibson. Take, for example,
the indelible impression he left on his 10 Things costar. "We were
doing this scene in a car where we had to kiss, and he grabbed me and pulled
me into the backseat and made rude gestures," Stiles says, giggling. "Heath's
sexy, but it's not an I'm-better-than-you kind of sexy. He's so much fun
to be around because he doesn't try to play it cool."
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