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| After roles in such critically acclaimed films as The Four Feathers and Monster's Ball, Ledger cemented his place as one of the "serious" actors when he starred opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in 2005's Brokeback Mountain.
The role earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role. |
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| Brokeback Mountain (2005) could not have come at a better time for Ledger. This poignant story of forbidden love between two young ranch-hands, played by Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, gained both actors wide admiration.
Annie Proulx's beautiful, delicate short story...has been transformed into a beautiful, delicate movie under the masterly direction of Ang Lee. |
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| Like all great films, it takes us on a journey. You don't just watch Brokeback Mountain, you experience it. In large part, the tragic love story became so successful around the globe because of Ledger's performance as the uptight Ennis Del Mar, a ranch hand who lets life pass him by without ever daring to live it.
Though presented as a story of thwarted love -- of ache and longing and regrets -- it's ultimately a story about the relationships that shape us -- for better and for worse. |
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| HEATH LEDGER AND JAKE GYLLENHAAL |
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| Brokeback Mountain was filmed almost entirely in the Canadian Rockies in southern Alberta. |
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| Ledger is particularly effective as the more stoical and taciturn of the two. |
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| Heath Ledger and his Brokeback Mountain director, Ang Lee, at the Venice Film Festival (September 2007) |
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| LEDGER AND GYLLENHAAL |
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| "The challenge was to capture the stillness of him," Ledger said of the role."I have a kind of semi-frantic, nervous energy. Harnessing that was something I thought I'd have to work out. Shooting in the wilderness, the stillness became like this innate quality."
The role earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor in a leading role. |
| HEATH IS INTERVIEWED |
| Interviewer: I want to ask you first about the different paths that Ennis (Heath's character) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal's character) take in sort of dealing with their situation. It strikes me that Ennis is really the tragic figure in this film. Even though Jack pays the ultimate price, at least he has moments in his life where he sort of realizes who he is. Do you agree?
Heath Ledger: That's true. I think that's part of Ennis' problem -- that he has no self-realization. I, as the actor playing him, took the time to investigate him and to discover what exactly his battles were. What was preventing him to express and to love? And one of the conclusions I came to was that he's battling himself. Like he's battling his genetic structure, if you will, and all the beliefs, fears and traditions that were passed down from his father, and so on. And that was so deeply embedded and installed in him. So then I wanted to physicalize it in his walk and into his speech. ... Ennis, he wasn't as self-aware as to ask himself these questions, so he didn't really know what I knew about him. Essentially, as an actor, I had to go in front of the camera and think ... less. Interviewer: Certainly when most gay Americans, and probably a lot of straight Americans, hear the word "Wyoming," one of the first things that comes to mind is Matthew Shepard and what happened to Matthew. ... Was the name Matthew Shepard something you guys even talked about in shooting this film? Ledger: We certainly, um, were aware of it. But we were definitely trying not to mimic or portray any story outside of the short story of Annie Proulx's [on which "Brokeback" was based] and the script that we'd been given. And we certainly didn't want to be making any political statements. We kept ourselves on a fairly strict budget of the information we were given in pre-production and just tried to create something from that. Interviewer: Yours, as is everyone's, is an incredible performance. ... When you hear people say ... "Who knew this was in Heath Ledger?," is that flattering? How do you feel about that? Ledger: I don't know. I just hope I get to continue to do that. I mature as an actor as I mature as a person, and ... I'm hoping to continue to evolve in both areas. |
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| With director Ang Lee |
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| January 29, 2006 With Jake Gyllenhaal at Screen Actors Guild Awards |
 | Heath Ledger shares a photo op with a female fan as he arrives at the 2006 AFI Awards in Melbourne, Australia. Ledger was on hand to accept the International Award for Best Actor for his work in Brokeback Mountain. |
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| AT THE 78TH ACADEMY AWARDS (MARCH 2006) |
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| MICHELLE WILLIAMS AND HEATH LEDGER AT THE 78TH ACADEMY AWARDS (MARCH 2006) Michelle was born in Kalispell, Montana. She graduated high school at the age of 15 and was legally emancipated from her parents at that age in order to legally pursue her acting career. She has made the statement that Heath was "extremely vulnerable." Says Williams, "I think the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was. You can pick it up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine," she adds. "But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was. He had a talent for everything that he put his mind to. He didn't know limits." Michelle also touched on Ledger's history of sleeping issues. "For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia," she says. "He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning--always turning. He had an uncontrollable energy. He buzzed...." |
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| There have been very few show business deaths that shook me up. Ledger's is one of them. Part of the reason is that it was so unexpected. But mainly, it had to do with a memory. What immediately came to mind when I learned of his death was the last scene in Brokeback Mountain, when Ennis looks back at the life he chose not to live, and almost inaudibly mutters, "Jack, I swear."
That moment still haunts me. (Anonymous quote) |