|
|
 |
|
|
|
Meet another girl/teen in our club who likes the same movie favorites as you do. To write her, click on the link to join the penpal club! Hangin' With Archives
|
Updated
9/18/02 We're Hangin' With..... HEATH LEDGER BY: LYNN B.
Heath joked that his hair was "at home" or "in the make-up truck" but admitted he shaved it off for fun and then the look came in handy for two scenes at the top of his next film Ned Kelly, a tale of the Australian version of Jesse James, a folk hero the actor has always admired. "It was the role of a lifetime. It's such an important story and an important voice to be heard. He's such an iconic figure. I'd grown up all my life with Ned Kelly. He was my hero". He wasn't a bad guy? "No. He was kicked when he was down my friend. His dad was sent from Tiparary Island to Australia for stealing a sheep and therefore he was of criminal breed and there were restrictions in society for what he could and couldn't do and he was completely beaten down. They were Irish, they were the dogs". We had to comment on Heath's various tattoos. Were they real? "No. I draw them on every morning", he grins and laughs. "This one (wrist) is the initials of my sisters and my mom, Kate, Ashley, Olivia and Sally, all the girls. That one is Tahitian. That signifies the muscle. I don't really have shoulder muscles so I thought I'd put it there. It was at a time when I needed inner strength. This is just some dots. The good thing about dots is you can choose to tell people anything". To us, they looked like Crop Circles! "Right. I just woke up one morning and they were there. That's what I told my parents. They just appeared".
Heath's upbringing near Perth was helpful for his Four Feathers experiences in the Moroccan desert. "I remember days in school, we don't have snow days but we'd have heat days. I remember when you weren't allowed to go to school because it was 50 degrees Celsius, about 145 degrees Fahrenheit. I went to a school where you had to wear a wide-brimmed hat because we have a hole in the ozone directly above our country and so you're in the sun for five minutes and you're burnt". Getting along with camels was no hardship either. "I think [The Rock and I] shared the same camel in Morocco. Big Mountain was his name. He starred in The Mummy as well. He was a really nice guy. I loved them. I really did because they had spunk. They're smart, if not smarter than a horse and, for that reason, you'll kick them and say 'go forward' and they'll turn around and say 'f-off' and turn and go backwards". There are camels in Australia. Had he ridden one? "No. Just kangaroos. Just to school.. boing! It was awesome".. (he's kidding). All the rough desert scenes were filmed first but filming out of order didn't phase Heath. "We did everything in Morocco and then went back to London and book-ended it. Did the start and end which was kind of cool. You got to see ahead and see where the character was going to go to and so you could throw a huge contrast. You could say, I know what he's going to become so I can just whip it around and really give posture and be still and stiff. I kind of liked it like that". Lead actress Kate Hudson didn't join the cast until their final London shoot. "She was great to work with. The poor thing had to come on board after we'd been in the desert together for four months and we're all like a fit unit and a family so she must have felt a little alienated at first. But she really approached it with a fresh opinion and almost re-inspired everyone's interest in the story again. She's very professional, very beautiful and did, I think, a really good job in the movie. She was fun to work with". We realized
that Heath is always on horseback! He rode horses for "Roar",
in The Patriot, The character of Harry Feversham is marked a coward but shows incredible bravery. We wondered what Heath had considered brave in his own life. "Maybe just getting in a car when I was sixteen and driving to Sydney and leaving that life and my family and friends". Harry is also in a difficult love triangle in the film. Had Heath ever had to compete with a good pal for a girl? "No really, there's kind of an unspoken thing with mates like that. It's kind of like the first person to make a move and then everyone else just steps back. It's like that in my world with my friends". We'd heard tales of blinding sandstorms and sudden rains that made life and work in the desert a nightmare. "I think all the chaos just added to the environment. It was so grueling out there and my character's journey was grueling and so it just made my job easier. Chaos causes you to focus because you want to do a good job. At the end of the day we ended up just shooting from the hip anyhow. The rehearsal process was eight hours a day sitting around a table just talking about everything. [The director's] script notes were twice as thick as the actual script. We had such thorough insight to what was going on that no matter how chaotic it was and how little script we had on the day, whatever they'd throw at us, we were ready". Heath has no strong opinion on the fact that the politics of the film (English soldiers versus an extremist Muslim enemy) mirror the current world situation. "At the end of the day the politics is just a backdrop for the story. It's grand and an epic adventure but the story is so small. It's a story of human emotions and qualities and that's it." Those human emotions were tough to portray on a daily basis. "It was emotionally tough because every day was really having to give something and it was extremely tiring and taxing. The hardest thing was keeping sane every night, going home and having two hours to shower and talk to someone if you can.. keeping a level of sanity because when you're working with Shekhar (Kapur, the director), you don't stop thinking and he doesn't let you which is great. So matter how tough it was, it was also very inspiring. The pains we experienced were inspired out of us and we willed them. Shekhar is an inspiring man, extremely passionate and you want to work hard for him". The daily routine in the desert seems impossible to survive. "I'd get to work every day at three a.m., get out of the make-up chair at six a.m. and I'd get home at eight p.m. and get to bed by ten and wake up at eleven to Shekhar pounding at my window with [East Indian accent] 'we need to talk about tomorrow's shoot' Okay. You'd sit and talk for an hour and wake up at two thirty again. It took me months after this movie just to stop pacing back and forth around the room. When I got home to my house I'd sit down in a chair and get straight back up. I'd do that for weeks and weeks because things are just racing".
Heath has been based in L.A. for five years but hasn't been around much for the last three. When he is home, he revealed that his musical interests take over. "I have a huge vinyl collection from old jazz to blues, hip hop reggae, you name it. I have turntables and I just love vinyl. There is just something romantic about it. It's like a film to digital kind of thing. There's that crackle. I've been teaching myself how to play guitar and my house came with a piano which is embarrassing because people come over and "ooo, you play piano". And I'm 'yeah' until they say play something and I'm like no, it's okay. I'm desperately trying to teach myself like ten instruments which is my problem. I should try to focus on one". Family is also very important. "Particularly my little sisters, just watching them grow is a natural high".
|
 
|
Angela
& Gina's Room |
Brigid
& Kayla's Room |
Christine
& Erika's Room |
Lauren
& Sarada's Room | Circle of Friends PenPal Club | Site Map |
|
Since 1996, your space on the web : written and edited by girls and teens from all over the world. Media Kit Feedback Newsletter Write FOR us Contact Us |
|
Copyright © 2006 A Girl's World Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
Now he plays the lead in the epic romantic adventure The Four Feathers.
When we spoke with the actor in Los Angeles, his signature long locks
were shorn and he was transformed into a punk grunge rocker in red "Booze
Fighters" t-shirt and jeans but there was no hiding that great face
and smile. 
The
actor's career has been the center of a whirlwind but he barely notices
the breeze. "You never expect anything to happen. I certainly didn't.
Things just happen and you always think it's the norm and it's always
been like this but it hasn't. I rarely stop and sit down and think, 'where
was I a couple of years back?' I still feel the same". Heath is rumored
to be dating Mulholland Drive actress Naomi Watts. He won't speak
of his personal life but admits that he's learned to deal with nosy journalists.
"There are places to go and places not to go and, in terms of people
prying into your personal life, at first it's really annoying and you
want to hit these people and then you start restricting yourself and you
just sit in your house for months on end and then you're like "f"
it. I'm not going to change my life and let that dictate where I go and
what I do. If they do photograph you and put you in some magazines and
millions of people read it, why should I care. I don't know these millions
of people. I've still got the same ten best friends and the same family
around me that I've had before all this and it doesn't effect them and
that little circle. They know what's going on in my life. They don't have
to read it to find out and so I shouldn't let it get to me". 
certainly in Knight's Tale and will in Ned Kelly. He does
his own horse stunts in Four Feathers. Some are quite fantastic yet he
never trained for this. "I only learned through movies and stuff
like that. That's been my training but I did grow up around horses. For
a while my dad was leasing our property and part of why we got the rent
so cheap was it was on this huge acreage that backed onto a national park
and we rented it out to horse owners. I grew up grooming horses and feeding
them. They were always around". Producers weren't aware of Heath's
impressive run and jump onto a galloping horse for "Feathers".
"They wouldn't let me ride a bicycle much less jump on a running
horse. But the stunt supervisor took me through it and I kind of practiced
on the ground. It's a lot harder when the horse isn't running because
it's the momentum of the ground moving out from beneath your feet that
kicks your legs up in the air. We took the horse off somewhere and I tried
it once". Talk about a "flying leap". "I jumped off
the ground and gave it everything and I didn't realize that you don't
need to put in that much energy. I jumped so hard that my legs went up
over the saddle and I landed on the other side of the horse still holding
onto the saddle. I realized I just had to do a little jump. Then we shot
it and they wouldn't let me do it again". 
The
motivations of Heath's character have always been questioned. How could
he refuse to go to war and then go later to save his friends? "To
me, he had an identity crisis because he'd been spoon fed his identity
from an early age growing up in a very systematic, regimental environment
with all these expectations to become his father. Then, he's confronted
with the reality of this and it completely stumps him. He suddenly realizes
he has no idea who he is. He brings up all these questions that he doesn't
have the answer to and he acts upon it and everyone calls him a coward
for it and he starts to believe it too. But, standing up for what he believes
in and his instincts was the most courageous thing he did. Had he gone
to war with those feelings and thoughts, then that would have been cowardly,
I feel". Heath has his own opinion of soldiering. "I wouldn't
want to go to war for anything either. Unless it was really to protect
my family and it was my homeland being invaded. I would never go out and
start a war, put it that way. I would for sure defend myself and I do,
to the bone".