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Heath Ledger is the latest Australian to take Hollywood by storm. The difference is he seems to wish the tempest around him would just blow past.
Small chance of that happening. After knocking over the ladies with his breakout U.S. performance in 10 Things I Hate About You and as Mel Gibson's revolutionary son in The Patriot, it's no wonder the promotional campaign for his first big starring vehicle, A Knight's Tale, is built almost entirely around Ledger's handsome mug.
Forget that the medieval epic costars British heartthrob Rufus Sewell, The Full Monty's Mark Addy and delectable Shannyn Sossamon. Never mind that it's the rousing, ribald story of a 14th-century peasant who becomes one of the era's top jousters. Overlook the fact that writer-director Brian Helgeland (Payback) fills the movie, rather weirdly, with 20th-century pop tunes.
The movie's nothing without Ledger's fresh-faced charisma.
Off the screen, the actor is quick to puncture any pretty-boy pretensions with a likably foul mouth and small regard for the politics of rising stardom. Refreshing--makes us want to wish him all the success in the world, though he'd probably hate us for it.
Q: You seem kind of spent.
A: I'm sick of talking.
Q: Well, you wanted to be a movie star.
A: Hey...hey! I'll slap anyone who says that to me again: "You fucking knew it was coming!" It's like, Get fucked! No one knows it's coming. I thought I'd just turn up and act and turn up and act and turn up and act, and all of a sudden, there's this other shit.
Q: Okay, we won't think of you as a celebrity. But this acting thing you're doing, it must have changed your life over the past year or so as your profile has risen.
A: I haven't had a taste of it, and I'm not going out of my way to bite into it. I've been working 18 months straight, six-day weeks. I haven't had a chance to come back and experience what you're talking about.
Q: They do seem to be selling A Knight's Tale solely on your looks. Are you worried what might happen to your career if it bombs?
A: No, I'm not. You know, if that happens, there is a good side to it. I can come in, have a sniff and get the fuck out of here, and that could be a really good thing--it could be. So, you know, there is a yin and yang to everything, and that would certainly balance out somehow.
Q: Let's phrase it another way: Do you feel any responsibility for the movie's success or failure?
A: I don't know. Ultimately, yeah, there is the $50 million, but it's not my money. Shit, I don't have the pressure of losing it. Basically, I'm showing up and acting, and the job doesn't differ from a $3 million movie. Between "action" and "cut," there is no amount of money that can change what I do.
So, no, I didn't really have that kind of pressure. I also had an ensemble, an incredible cast of people around me, so I never felt the movie was riding on my shoulders.
And I certainly never felt my head should be on the poster like that. It was always an ensemble movie, but it's just what studios do: They grab their movie, they find angles on how to market it and they find the product they can create and boost and then sell.
That's also a way of passing a bit of the pressure off of their shoulders and saying, "The movie didn't do good. It's the kid's fault--it was his face on the poster." [Laughs.]
Q: You are the knight, though. Tell us about jousting.
A: It was okay. The lances are weighted at the end, so you can hold them in the crook of your arm. And they're made of balsa wood, so we just looked big and tough and strong. I tried to do everything except hit someone or get hit. Obviously, they wouldn't let me do that myself.
Q: Rufus has complained about how heavy and hot the armor was.
A: Oh, he's a wench. [Laughs.] No, it was really heavy and really hot. We all had lower back problems by the end of the movie, because when you're riding on the horse, the armor just clanks and weighs you down.
Q: What do you think of the way modern pop tunes are worked in as background music and as part of some of the scenes themselves?
A: It's the way it is for a reason. We weren't drawing any lines or limitations to keep the movie historically correct. We were trying to keep it free and open. It's a movie, man--it's a fairy tale. It's not about a particular period in time. I loved that the music allowed us to do that. I didn't even have to act in keeping with the time, just play the script and the character. I loved it.
Q: Did you know it was going to be done that way when you signed on?
A: Yeah. The actual songs that were used were written in the script.
Q: How did you like filming in Prague? Isn't it Europe's all-purpose movie location these days?
A: They were making something like nine movies when we were there. It's a wonderful place. And it's only 15 or 20 cents for a pint of beer.
Q: And isn't that where you met Heather Graham--while she was making From Hell?
A: Yes. It was nice. It's a romantic city.
Q: Now that you two are out of there, does having busy acting schedules interfere with the relationship?
A: It doesn't complicate anything personal in the way we feel about each other. You can't complicate that unless...Well, I guess it can, but it doesn't.
Q: It must have been quite a culture shock, though, to go from a place like that to the middle of Moroccan nowhere for four months to shoot the Four Feathers remake.
A: There was nothing to do there except work. At the end of the day, you just look at the walls of your hotel room. You'd have three hours of sleep each night, then wake up and sit in the makeup chair for three hours every day and then just want to work.
Q: Four Feathers was the classic troubled production: over schedule, overbudget, weather problems. How would you describe the situation?
A: It was very tough. Nothing was really organized. There wasn't a script at the very beginning, so we couldn't schedule the movie at all. There was so much fucking pressure; we were rewriting things, collaborating with everyone. It was a wonderful experience, though. Because there was so much chaos, everyone had to focus and work really hard.
Q: Didn't really know Australians had such a work ethic. We thought you all mainly just go to the beach.
A: Perth, where I'm from, is all beach. [Laughs.] It's gorgeous, just endless, endless coastline on that side. We have the whole western coast of Australia to ourselves.
Q: Is it true that all of your mates from Australia have turned your place in Hollywood into a party palace?
A: It's not. It's a very relaxed house. Certainly, since I've been away, there have been a ton of my friends from Australia going in and out of there, but that's good. The house is there to be lived in, and I come home to a family of people.
Q: You must not have been there last night, then, because you seem kind of hung over today.
A: Yeah, actually, I went with Rufus and Mark and saw the final print of A Knight's Tale, and then we just went out and drank a bunch of tequila. It's gross.
Q: You've only recently turned 22, and you've been at this for a number of years. Do you feel like acting has robbed you of a part of your youth?
A: Well, look, I'm still a kid, and I have to grow up fast when I'm talking with the likes of you, talking about my professional life. You just have to--it's a business, and you just have to learn how to be that way. But ultimately, no, I'm still a six-year-old kid. I always will be, and I think it's an important thing to hold on to.
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