For many of us, the death of Heath Ledger - before his iconic performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight had even left the editing room - still seems completely unreal. The loss of a so utterly talented young actor and father, in such tragic a way, can be almost impossibly difficult to process - something that must be doubly true for those who knew him personally, and lost a friend, a colleague, or a family member. Many of those closest to Ledger have chosen to keep their memories of the actor private, and to remain silent in their grief. Others, though, have spoken out about the man, and his remarkable talent. I was so lucky to have met him and sat next to him in the 10 Things I Hate About You Premiere in Innaloo as Cleonie an old friend of the family was on Ship To Shore with Heath. He had a real presence and was truly one of a kind to meet and discuss the scenes of the film with the man in the film! Christopher Nolan, his director on The Dark Knight, has spoken particularly eloquently on the subject over the years - and with the release of Interstellar, it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit the directors often deeply touching memories of a man he clearly considered not just a colleague, but a friend. Here are some quotes direct from Christopher Nolan about Heath: Really, in a sense, Heath chose me. I met Heath for a couple of films -- I actually met him in relation to Batman, as well, because I was meeting kind of every young actor. He very graciously came and met me for a drink and began to explain why he would never do this kind of movie. [Laughs] But he was very polite. He was really just a lovely guy, and so I thought, Well, shame I cant convince you, but this is what were trying to do with this thing. I think when he saw Batman Begins, hed probably remembered the things Id said about what I was going to try to do, and he felt that Id done it, so I met with him for the Joker. I didnt know whether it was something hed be interested in, but I sat and chatted with him in my office for a couple of hours. We didnt have a script at that point, but -- my brother was writing it at the time, and we knew kind of where that was going to go, and it was very much what Heath had in mind. And he just was determined to do it. He just had a vision for something, and the way he termed it to me at the time was, he really didnt like to work too much. He liked to do a character and then stop working then let enough time go by. He wanted to be hungry for it. And when he came to me, he was clearly in that state: Very hungry. He was ready to do something like that and just own it -- which is what he did. I feel very, very proud of being involved in that performance, and it really was a collaboration. But I hesitate to take too much credit for it because Heath really was a self-starter in that regard. We talked a lot about reference points and I tried to free him up with the tone. But he really came up with the goods on that one. I’m very proud to be involved with that. The first sequence we shot was the IMAX prologue, where he had a mask on. I think that freed him up to just enjoy that -- not worry about it too much. Then theres the moment when he pulls his mask off, which is tremendous, but it was the first time wed shot with the IMAX cameras, and when we looked at dailies it was all a bit out of focus. So I just rescheduled…and I got this horrified phone call from him, sort of, What have I done? It was the first time hed ever shown us the voice, and hes like, And you want to re-shoot it? Im like No no no -- its great! But he never quite believed me, I think. Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. Im very confident that the performance has been edited exactly as it wouldve been had Heath not died...It was very important to me that his performance be put out there exactly the way that we had intended it and that he had intended it to be seen as well. Watching him come up with the characterization was a pretty exciting and pretty amazing thing because youre looking at an actor craft an iconic presence for a character, but making it human at the same time. Thats an incredible thing to do and the way in which hes done it is extraordinarily complicated. For me, for my process, just working straight through it and wrestling through it and working was actually — I felt very lucky to have something to do. Because for most of the people who knew him far better than I did, who were around him, it was very difficult for his family and everyone. I was very fortunate: I had something very specific to be getting on with — I felt an enormous amount of responsibility to him. When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 01:10:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015