3/29/2023 0 Comments Spike tv documentary![]() ![]() was sort of a renowned pre- Entourage kind of Entourage house,” says friend and actor Ben Mendelsohn ( Bloodline). The doors were always open - Ledger could be away shooting a movie in Europe and his home would still be full. Ledger kept around him the close group of friends he’d grown up with back in Perth, often inviting everyone to stay at his home in L.A. He basically lived in the house from Entourage before Entourage was a TV show However, Gibson took the young actor under his wing and looked out for him - he essentially became Ledger’s first teacher, telling his friends, “It’s not what Mel says, it’s what he doesn’t say.” After the movie wrapped, Gibson invited his young prodigy and friends to fly back to L.A. He called his friends from the set really upset and caught up in the fear that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish what he wanted in the role. While working on The Patriot, Ledger experienced a crisis of confidence. ![]() ![]() He called his agent when he left and told him he wouldn’t be getting the part, only to find out a little later that he had, in fact, landed the role - the producers were impressed by the little they’d seen. However, halfway through the second scene of his screen test, Ledger stopped what he was doing, fearing he had messed up and didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. When Ledger screen tested for 2000’s The Patriot, he was excited at the thought of working with one of his longtime idols and fellow Aussies, Mel Gibson (he loved Mad Max growing up). He would also film himself acting - even if it was just him running around his hotel pretending to be on a mission - always curious to see how he, as a self-taught actor in many way, could improve. Cameras were a big passion of Ledger’s life, and he was able to set them up without using a light meter and understood how to use all their settings. He had a knack for capturing friends at their most vulnerable and authentic. Ledger was constantly recording what was going on around him, documenting his life with a camcorder, Polaroid camera, and regular camera and make art out of it. “So I had a lot of fun saying no.” But he did it in a friendly way. “People in Hollywood, they don’t like to hear no,” says Ledger in voiceover. Rather, he wanted to mix things up a bit, choosing his next role carefully. Because of his success in the rom-com, producers began scrambling to cast him in any and all similar projects, but that was the exact opposite of what the young actor was looking to do. After making the film, Ledger began to feel like this was really his career, that he truly was an actor. ![]() At that moment Amato realized there was truly something “different” about his friend. Once Ledger had read it he immediately told Amato he wanted to play the lead role of Patrick, despite his relative inexperience. Ledger’s filmmaker-friend Matt Amato gave him a copy of his friend’s script for 10 Things I Hate About You. When he read the script for 10 Things I Hate About You he immediately wanted the lead role “It’s just that there was all this going on outside of that and I just had to be a part of it.” 2. “I had nothing to run away from in Perth,” the Australian says in a voiceover from a previous interview. I’m going to be in the film industry and I’m going to be a film actor.” This restless ambition led him to leave school and hit the road when he was just 17. As a teenager Ledger would follow all his older sister’s productions and watch from the front row telling his family: “That’s what I want to do, I can’t wait until I can do that!” He always had a clear vision for where he saw his life going and would stare up at the stars he’d stuck on his bedroom ceiling, point to them and say: “That’s where I’m going to be. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |