Author Topic: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes  (Read 684909 times)

Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1470 on: Aug 05, 2009, 10:17 AM »
Like they wrote at the end of the video, Heath was a great defender of life. And he never hesitated to stand for his beliefs.
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Offline jackster

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1471 on: Aug 05, 2009, 10:33 AM »
Here's a direct link to "The Masses" own website and Heath's work:

http://www.wearethemasses.com/videos/modest-mouse-king-rat
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Offline chameau

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1472 on: Aug 05, 2009, 05:05 PM »
but again.. how much talent wasted...  :\'(

Yup!  :\'(
La dictature c'est ''ferme ta geule'', la démocratie c'est ''cause toujours''
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Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1473 on: Aug 08, 2009, 06:48 AM »
Here's a fascinating article from Daniel Auber, about making the "King Rat" video with Heath. It's taken from The Masses website.

Making "King Rat" by Daniel Auber

When Heath asked me to collaborate on this video I found it more than just a good cause, I was incredibly happy to have that first experience of he and I sitting by a desk and giving life to something together. So far our previous collaborations were of a different nature (a big movie production and a lot of cooking at dinner parties) I was confident because, in my opinion, if someone can cook together, they can also make a movie.

The creation of an artwork is a process that people enjoy in different ways. For some it's painful, for others it's joyful, but it's always hard work. The first part of the creation for the "King Rat" video (two weeks of making the animatic with Heath) had been just a lot of fun and discovery. We were both new to this kind of work, and that's what kept us excited.

A few weeks before starting I made a sketch of a fishing whale character. Heath liked it, so I knew more or less what kind of style I should draw going forward. When I joined him in London, Terry Gilliam let us work in the conference room of his visual effects company (Peerless). It was luxury: we had a massive window overlooking Covent Garden, and Terry's creative vibrations in the air.

Terry would come to see the progress every once in a while and we were excited to hear his advice. This is why Heath decided to have the "Monty Python trumpets" popping down from the clouds, and also why I proposed to have Terry's face as "The Sun" in our video. We felt like school kids inspired by our favorite teacher.

Ninety percent of the drawings that are used in the video were intended to be storyboard sketches. This was our working chain: Heath would tell me what happens in the scene, I would draw the shots, then he would edit them with the song. We laughed like children as we looked at the results, the new toy was working.

We started the process from the beginning of the song:

Blue colours are bright and serene, with a tiny tone of green suggesting a possible sinister evolution in the story.

As the video advances, the quantity of green and black increases, preparing us for darkness.

When our eyes have adjusted to the desaturated tones, a complementary bright red starts to appear.

The clip had to be shocking. The fun we were having was less important than the strength of Heath's message in favour of marine wildlife. The treatment he wrote initially was a bit longer. We had to cut the restaurant scene where the whales eat sushi made with human fingers. It didn't matter because the pet seal's close-up was a strong ending.

The powerful song by Modest Mouse was a major inspiration. Isaac's dramatic voice was driving us towards a deranged imaginative territory. It was great.
At the end of that process, in our high-tech conference room we made a projection for Terry and the Peerless people that saw us walking in and out for weeks (only Nicky Valsamakis knew exactly what was going on all the way, and obviously our Masses colleagues back home in LA).
The animatic was already a roughly functional music video by itself.

After Heath left us, I didn't have any intention of finishing the video without him. It was Sara Cline who had the idea of finishing it, so Heath's cause against whale hunting would find exposure. And we would all have the pleasure of seeing another one of his challenging works. I said yes with no hesitation.

The second stage of making the video, with lead animator Norris Houk and animator Jade Taglioli, was about bringing to life the still drawings from the animatic.
My mind was still populated by all the information and details that Heath transmitted me during the London days. I knew exactly what he had in mind for the animation. For example, his description of the whales walking towards the bow of the boat, or dancing during the party, was very precise. We both had a whale dance in the office before starting to work on that sequence.

In fact, the main quality that would have made Heath a great director, in my opinion, was his ability to be contagious with his ideas, and to describe them in a very convincing way, with a lot of joy. Work has to be fun somehow, otherwise it's not worth it.

Jade and Norris did a remarkable job animating those shots for a month. My duty was to pass the message on, as precisely as possible.

My favourite memory on this video is very far from its shocking and distinctive taste. It's quite cheesy, actually: whilst we spent long days working on the animatic, listening endlessly to interrupted bits of Isaac's haunting and cavernous voice, there was another song being played constantly coming from outside the window.
It wasn't annoying us because its paradisiac nature was having a complementary effect on us. It was Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". Every time I randomly hear that song, I think of how lucky I was to be over there for a few wonderful weeks.

http://www.wearethemasses.com/blogs/making-king-rat-daniel-auber
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Offline jackster

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1474 on: Aug 08, 2009, 07:42 AM »
A wonderful story Keren, thanks for sharing it. A good version of IZ's Over the Rainbow is on YouTube at:
.   To paraphrase Daniel Auber . . .

Every time I randomly hear that song, I think of how lucky I was to be over there for a few wonderful weeks.

Every time I think of Brokeback, I remember how lucky we all are to have had him for a few wonderful years.  :-\\
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Offline christie wood

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1475 on: Aug 08, 2009, 08:40 AM »
I love that article Keren ,and the story about "Somewhere over the rainbow"  - didn't Heath once say that he loved Wizard of Oz and would watch it over and over again?  :)
"Look at my boots, old and dingy" - Heath Ledger

Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1476 on: Aug 08, 2009, 09:34 AM »
Here's a fascinating article from Daniel Auber, about making the "King Rat" video with Heath. It's taken from The Masses website.
[...]
In fact, the main quality that would have made Heath a great director, in my opinion, was his ability to be contagious with his ideas, and to describe them in a very convincing way, with a lot of joy. Work has to be fun somehow, otherwise it's not worth it.
[...]

Thank you so much, keren.  :ghug: :^^) I love hearing the insight of people who worked with Heath, and this is amazing. He shared so much, and he had so much fun.
Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1477 on: Aug 08, 2009, 11:08 AM »
A wonderful story Keren, thanks for sharing it. A good version of IZ's Over the Rainbow is on YouTube at:
.   To paraphrase Daniel Auber . . .

Every time I think of Brokeback, I remember how lucky we all are to have had him for a few wonderful years.  :-\\

I know... the world has been lucky to enjoy the gifts that he shared with us in his short 28 years. He was like a star that shined brighter than all the other stars in the sky before it fell down to earth. The world was more beautiful in his light, but now it's darker without him.
The truth is... sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it.

Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1478 on: Aug 08, 2009, 12:12 PM »
I know... the world has been lucky to enjoy the gifts that he shared with us in his short 28 years. He was like a star that shined brighter than all the other stars in the sky before it fell down to earth. The world was more beautiful in his light, but now it's darker without him.

Although the world lost the new light that he would have created in his work, the light he shone on us will never die.

There are those who leave behind footprints in the sand of our hearts. Heath was one of those.
Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline LauraLovesLedger

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1479 on: Aug 08, 2009, 01:03 PM »
Although the world lost the new light that he would have created in his work, the light he shone on us will never die.

There are those who leave behind footprints in the sand of our hearts. Heath was one of those.

Couldn't have said it better m'self, bud.  :)

His light will never die.  He left footprints in the sand of our hearts.

And we love him still - that has got to brighten the world a little, too, our love for him, compensate a little for the darkness that we might perceive in our grief. 


 :ghug:


Offline LauraLovesLedger

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1480 on: Aug 08, 2009, 01:07 PM »
The company that Heath founded with his friends released a video directed by Heath. The animation is ingenious and mature. Those with a squeamish stomach may want to be aware of the sequence after about 3:30. The slaughter of humans, even in subdued animation, is still very shocking. The genius of Heath's direction is to elicit empathy, to put the audience in the whale's skins, so to speak.  :( Bravo to the Masses.


The Video:


The Article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57407T20090805

An animated music video directed by the late actor Heath Ledger debuted on the Web on Tuesday, and it's an attack on the whaling industry set to the song "King Rat" by alternative rock band Modest Mouse.

The six-minute video cartoon uses irony to make a statement against whaling, by showing whales in a commercial vessel "hunting" for humans, which they harpoon, club to death and skin, before turning them into cookies.

Ledger in 2007 presented Modest Mouse lead singer Isaac Brock with the idea for a music video that would take a stand against the whale hunts that take place off the coast of his native Australia, said social networking website MySpace, which presented the video on Tuesday.

The video was fully conceived but unfinished when Ledger died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in January 2008, MySpace said.

After his death, The Masses, a film and music company that Ledger was involved with, completed the video, MySpace said.

The online video debut was timed to coincide with the Tuesday release of Modest Mouse's latest CD "No One's First, and You're Next," which includes the song "King Rat."

Ledger in February won a posthumous Oscar for his supporting role as The Joker in last year's Batman movie "The Dark Knight."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Thanks so much for sharing, Andrew.  Sadly, the video "cannot be shown in your country", though.  Hopefully I'll find it elsewhere...

Really - was there nothing our boy could not do?  I'm so proud of him, always so darn proud whenever I hear of accomplishments like this one.  :)

Offline Sara_EJ

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1481 on: Aug 08, 2009, 02:24 PM »
(Hi! I'm a newbie! :) )

This is the trailer of the new Heath's fantastic movie, "The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"...




I love him...

Offline chameau

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1482 on: Aug 08, 2009, 05:04 PM »
(Hi! I'm a newbie! :) )

This is the trailer of the new Heath's fantastic movie, "The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"...




I love him...


Benvenuto Sara_EJ  x***x

The forum is huge and we have a whole thread dedicated to The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassius you will find it here

And a HD version of the UK trailer and many pictures were posted here

Enjoy! :)
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Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1483 on: Aug 08, 2009, 06:00 PM »
Couldn't have said it better m'self, bud.  :)

His light will never die.  He left footprints in the sand of our hearts.

And we love him still - that has got to brighten the world a little, too, our love for him, compensate a little for the darkness that we might perceive in our grief. 

 :ghug:


 :ghug: Laura I like to think of our candles, and ourselves, reflect a bit of the light that he gave us. As long as we remember him, his light still shines.  :ghug:
Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline Sara_EJ

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1484 on: Aug 09, 2009, 06:25 AM »
Benvenuto Sara_EJ  x***x

The forum is huge and we have a whole thread dedicated to The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassius you will find it here

And a HD version of the UK trailer and many pictures were posted here

Enjoy! :)

Thanks!
I was mistaken! Sorry!  ;)

Offline tizi17

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1485 on: Aug 20, 2009, 02:45 PM »
from afterelton 19th august...

Iconic Gay Movie Roles
by
Momo Hassan


Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
 
Why It Mattered

Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain has pretty much defined an entire era of gay filmmaking. Initially touted as a small art house favorite, Brokeback ended up an international blockbuster, drawing in audiences who deemed it a ‘universal love story’. The film went on to sweep up awards right, left and center, before so controversially failing to capture that coveted Best Picture prize.
 
With such praise surrounding the film, one tends to forget how incredible the performances were. And that is most true of Heath Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar, a repressed gay man in nearly unbearable internal turmoil and rarely ever able to consummate the relationship with the man that he so desperately loved.

Unlike Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), Ennis was so trapped by his fear that he was unable to even fulfil his most basic sexual desires, instead choosing to live his life behind a pseudo hard man exterior.
But what was most profound about Ledger’s role was how his agonizing heartbreak at the end of the film managed to stir emotions in both the straight and gay community alike.

In the character of Ennis, mainstream audiences, many of whom may only have been exposed to campier characters, were able to witness a portrayal that differed drastically from what they were used to. And Ledger’s heartthrob status, as well as his untimely death in 2008, adds even more texture to his tortured portrayal of Ennis Del Mar.

Whatever the case, it is undeniable that Heath’s bold portrayal is not just one of the most iconic gay performances, but one of the greatest performances of all time.

Cultural Impact: Very High
Cultural Significance: Very High
 
".. a love that dare not speak its name.." oscar wilde

Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1486 on: Aug 21, 2009, 03:37 AM »
from afterelton 19th august...

Iconic Gay Movie Roles
................................................
 
Whatever the case, it is undeniable that Heath’s bold portrayal is not just one of the most iconic gay performances, but one of the greatest performances of all time.
 


So true. Thank you for posting it Fausta.
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Offline christie wood

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1487 on: Aug 21, 2009, 03:11 PM »
Yeah that part you highlighted Keren, was so true...just reading that piece brought back such wonderful memories of the first time I watched BBM, and how it felt like a thunderbolt had just struck me, so amazed and awe struck was I at this film, this story, these characters, and most of all, Heath....who got lost in Ennis so utterly and completely. 
"Look at my boots, old and dingy" - Heath Ledger

Offline jackster

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1488 on: Aug 22, 2009, 04:45 AM »
A recent story in the Perth newspaper:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/5841661/movie-community-open-up-about-heath/

Movie community open up about Heath

The picture of Heath Ledger that emerged from the dozens of eulogies from film industry colleagues was one of an unusually passionate and committed actor - a throwback to Method-trained greats such as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Al Pacino.

However, as the pain of his passing fades, those who worked closely with Ledger during his peak years are starting to open up about what the actor went through to create a character and give us a hint about why he expired at such an early age.

Most startling is an article in the August issue of Vanity Fair in which highly regarded film journalist Peter Biskind documents Ledger's final weeks working on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

According to Biskind, author of the classic study Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Rock'n'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Ledger on the set of Gilliam's madcap latest foray into the fantastical was a study in hyperactivity.

"In our job we get to tell if somebody's rolling their eyes if they are asked to do another take. But he gave us 150 per cent. He was physically moving props around himself, to save time," the film's editor, Mick Audsley said.

Production designer Dave Warren revealed that Ledger even followed Gilliam around to look at locations, which surprised him. "He wasn't the kind of guy who would just sort of disappear into his trailer for the whole day."

However, that hyperactivity and extreme focus on the part he was playing did not stop at the end of the day. He could not switch off, recalls cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who said work helped Ledger forget his failed relationship with Michelle Williams and separation from his daughter Matilda.

An inability to switch off and chronic insomnia - he would spend evenings rearranging the furniture in his apartment - pushed Ledger towards the prescription drugs that would eventually end his life.

Ang Lee, who directed Ledger in his breakthrough role of the sexually repressed cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, said the actor gave so much of himself in creating the character of Ennis Del Mar that it was painful to watch.

"It was a real pleasure seeing the end result but it was not a pleasure to watch him work," Lee recalled. "Heath was a hyper person, very jumpy. He couldn't keep still, which must have been physically and mentally exhausting for him."

Lee admitted he wasn't initially convinced by Ledger when he cast him as the gay cowboy alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in his Oscar-winning adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's novella.

"Heath had made a lot of bad movies but I saw something in him. I saw it in the smaller roles where he wasn't the lead, like Monster's Ball, but I still wasn't sure he could carry a movie."

It was a risk casting an actor who up to that point had a trail of big-budget flops and mixed reviews (The Four Feathers, Ned Kelly, The Sin Eater) but Lee said the thrill of the adventure drives him.

"Movies are not always about acting and photography. It is something more magical," he explained. "There's a chemical reaction between the actor and the character and it certainly happened with Heath and Ennis.

"It was when we did the scene of Ennis eating the apple pie and his former girlfriend comes in and tries to get his attention. When we looked at the dailies some of the female crew members were crying. 'Leave the man alone," they said. That's when I knew we had something special.

"I'm very proud of the work that I did with Heath. Somehow the two of us created that character that touched so many people and which nobody can take away. That's how I like to remember him."
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Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1489 on: Aug 22, 2009, 05:22 AM »
Thank you for posting it jackster. We knew for some time that Heath was hyperactive, I think it came hand in hand with his brilliance and creativity. He was bursting with ideas and he wanted to do so much, his body couldn't keep up with the rate his mind was racing. Happens with a lot of creative geniuses, they just can't switch off. He demanded too much of his body and his body finally said "stop". :\'(

Interesting that Ang Lee mentioned that scene of Ennis and Cassie in the Diner. I remember Heath said it was so difficult for him to shoot that scene, and how he envied Linda Cardelini because her tears came so easily.
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Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1490 on: Aug 22, 2009, 09:16 AM »
Thanks, Jackster.

 :( :\'(

On the one hand, I really appreciate hearing what Heath's colleagues thought of him, especially Ang Lee, and the little anecdotes. On the other hand, it is so tragic to learn that after his breakup with Michelle, Heath was so unhappy, and so isolated, that with all the people who love him and all the friends who would do anything for him, Heath didn't reach out enough, didn't permit anyone to get close enough, to help him through that most difficult of times.  :(
« Last Edit: Aug 22, 2009, 06:27 PM by lancecowboy »
Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline christie wood

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1491 on: Aug 22, 2009, 04:19 PM »
Yeah, thanks Jackster for that interesting article...made me happy to know how well respected he was, and to read what Ang said about how they were witnessing something special with his portrayal of Ennis. That diner scene really did touch me deeply - all of Ennis's regrets and sorrows expressed so eloquently and heartbreakingly with so few words.... :\'( :\'( :\'( :\'(
"Look at my boots, old and dingy" - Heath Ledger

Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1492 on: Aug 23, 2009, 09:39 AM »
Heath Ledger’s True Last Bow

By Adam Breckenridge

http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/heath-ledgers-true-last-bow/23/
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Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1493 on: Aug 23, 2009, 11:42 AM »
Thanks, Keren.

Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline ynnaf

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1494 on: Aug 30, 2009, 06:17 AM »
New Lily Cole interview (she talks about Heath):

Quote
She is disconcertingly doll-faced. Pale bow lips that look like they’re drawn on. Cornflower-blue eyes like giant orbs. Red Crystal Tipps cartoon hair. It’s a round face that manages to look wise and gormless at the same time. It’s the face of a Marks & Spencer model who appeared controversially on the cover of French Playboy, hair in bunches, cuddling a teddy, naked except for little white socks. In the flesh, the look is more minx than exploited girlie.

It was the same extraordinary face, both sweet and uncompromising, that catapulted Lily Cole to fame after she was discovered by Storm model agency while shopping with friends in London. How could she look so babyish and so sophisticated? How could she earn so much when she was so young? (The Sunday Times Rich List estimates that she is worth at least £4m.) How could she miss so much school and earn a place at Cambridge, gaining a first this summer in her first-year exams.

It was perhaps inevitable that, after a short period of catwalk adulation, Cole would turn to acting. She had a small part in the 2007 remake of St Trinian’s, but now she is poised for a meatier role as the female lead in a film that has become memorable before it has even opened. It was an experience both wonderful and blighted, because her co-star died in the middle of filming.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has had a troubled genesis. Prior to production, its iconoclastic director, Terry Gilliam, faced a series of obstacles: the dithering of backers, the usual wrangling over money.

Gilliam took a risk on Cole, then just 19, who had never performed such a huge and integral role. There was considerable stress over how exactly she had to raise her game, but there was absolute devastation when her co-star Heath Ledger was found dead by his housekeeper in his New York loft in January 2008. Most of her scenes were with him. She worked with him perhaps more than any other member of the cast. She got to know his generous spirit. “He definitely helped me. From the beginning he understood that I would be overwhelmed and scared by the size of this project. He encouraged me and said he was really proud of me, constantly fed me support.”

Ledger’s death has been talked about so much — was it self-destruction or an accident with sleeping pills? He had chronic insomnia. He was in turmoil that he might lose his daughter, Matilda, then two, from his broken-down relationship with Michelle Williams, who he met on the rebound from Naomi Watts on the set of Brokeback Mountain. When I met Ledger I found him spiritual, wise beyond his years, a huge force of life, never someone who would have taken his own. The conundrum of his death has become an intellectual exercise.

When I saw the film I wasn’t prepared for the impact of seeing Ledger suddenly alive, real, vibrant, filling the screen, spiky with charisma. “I felt exactly the same,” says Cole. She has talked about this at length in private but never in public, until now. All those I spoke to who are connected to the film seem keen not to appear to be using the tragedy of Ledger as a marketing tool for the film. Yet still the ghouls will swell the box office.

Cole plays Valentina, Parnassus’s 16-year-old daughter. Her father, played by Christopher Plummer, has made a deal with the devil to seal her fate on her 16th birthday. She pouts when she says she is “sweet 16”, as if to say there is nothing sweet about her. She is never a victim. In the film she falls for Ledger’s rakish character. Their chemistry was real and they became very close. How hard was it to carry on without him? “It was incredibly hard. He became the driving force.” In death as in life, she means.

During the shoot, Ledger, along with many other cast members, including Lily, got the flu. After his death it was even said he had been suffering from pneumonia. He had certainly stopped drinking, and Cole recalls a consummate professional who worked meticulously. Perhaps he wanted to expunge the pain through his work. “He never told me he had pneumonia; there was no whimpering, no ‘Can I take a break?’ ”

When news of Ledger’s death broke, the cast were completely undone. They were deprived of a much-loved colleague and feared the film was unlikely to be finished. Thanks to Gilliam’s own determination and guile, it was salvaged. “Terry is the kind of person who has balls if he believes in something,” Cole says.

Ironically, the replacements that Gilliam lined up for Ledger — Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law — were arguably bigger names than Ledger himself. “People who were close to Heath wanted to do it for Heath,” Cole says. It’s as if, through them, he lived on. Her voice trails off; there is more than a note of sadness. “Johnny slipped seamlessly into the role, but that didn’t stop it being bizarre. I’m playing the same character; they are playing a character that is familiar to me but not the same actor. But when you look at the script, it could have been written that way. There are so many references to death.”

Sometimes Cole doesn’t say anything. Sometimes she gives a strange, all-knowing, echoey laugh. “In the film, everyone was part of one unit. That’s what helped us carry on. On top of that, everyone loved Heath… For everyone who knew him, it was devastating. The practicalities of continuing the production were difficult, but it seemed irrelevant. If you lose somebody you love, whether it’s at the beginning of shooting or at the end — it didn’t really matter. We were creatively challenged, yes. It was a bizarre experience. Heath was such a lovable human being. I thought I was in at the deep end at the beginning, and then look what happened.” I’m not sure if she realises what the film will do for her. It shows her as feisty and strong, with a poise and a face that could carry a film.

We’re talking after a photoshoot in LA, where she spends a lot of time. She’s wearing denim cut-offs, sandals with a big white flower between the toes, a rose-gold ring that matches her hair, and a black sweater. She’s tall, very tall, around 6ft. She’s got big breasts and there’s nothing about her that looks waif-like, frail or modellish. But maybe she has redefined what is modellish. She seems super-confident in her own skin. I say her performance as Valentina seems natural and feisty, and she giggles: “That works!” I ask if Gilliam might have been inspired by her naughty schoolgirl role in St Trinian’s. “No,” she says. “He hadn’t seen it. It came about after I’d been asked to do Rage with Sally Potter.”

Rage is a behind-the-scenes look at the modelling industry: mini-monologues, documentary-style but scripted by Potter. It features Jude Law’s alarming portrayal of a transvestite (I didn’t realise it was him until I read the credits) and Cole playing a model called Lettuce Leaf. Her delivery is drily perfect, full of irony. I recognise her special ironic laugh as one from her performance as Lettuce Leaf.

I wondered if she’d improvised a lot around the original script of Rage. “Everyone asks that, but the script didn’t change that much from when I first read it.” In Rage, she didn’t work with any of the other actors. Each performance is made up of monologues, so she too was shocked when she saw Jude Law take on a role as a transvestite. “Lots of people couldn’t believe it was him.”

Her performance as Lettuce Leaf is freshly observed, measured and shows an ability to send herself up — or at least her model self. Discussing another model becoming undone by anorexia, Lettuce Leaf says: “The way to be big is to be little.” Does that still sum up modelling? Was she ever asked to be smaller? “There’s definitely still a fascination with being thin and skinny in the modelling world. I also think there’s a celebration of curves. I have breasts. I love my breasts. There are models now who have more curves, and that’s seen as a good thing. I’ve never studied the correlation between the decades of plenty and the size of models, but it’s interesting, for sure. I was never asked to lose weight. I’m assuming people who are less successful are the ones who are told they need to be teeny to be so.”

One imagines that Cole was always instilled with confidence and cleverness. At the same time she is fresh, funny and doesn’t take herself seriously. In 2003, Steven Meisel photographed her for Italian Vogue. By 2004 she was British model of the year, and by 2007 she was making tabloid headlines — “Model Risks Career for Learning” — after deciding to start at King’s College, Cambridge. She is bemused that people find it strange that you can be gorgeous and clever. She isn’t at Cambridge to have her intelligence validated, nor does she think it will lead to a specific career.

“People change direction all the time; there’s a lot of value in that. I fell into modelling. It wasn’t a choice; not that I was forced into it. I just got asked one day to do it, and I believe in taking opportunities.”

When she arrived at Cambridge there was already a sense of her separateness. She had deferred her place for two years, and had done Gilliam’s film. Cambridge was not a means to an end; she just wanted to learn things. She doesn’t yet know where she will live next term, maybe in a flat, maybe a hall. As much as she can, she pursues a normal student life. Does she find it hard to make friends? She must be far richer and more accomplished than most girls her age. Doesn’t she find girls spiteful and jealous?

“I know what you mean about girls being like that, having gone to a girls’ school, but I wouldn’t want to attract those kind of people as friends and they wouldn’t attract me. I’ve been blessed with friends who are just happy for me.”

Is she expected to buy all the rounds of drinks? “No, a lot of my friends are working. A lot of them are doing well. None of us spend money extravagantly, so there’s not a huge disparity. So that’s never an issue,” she sighs, irritated.

“I was with my sister just last week. I know she really loves me. Within that love there’s no jealousy. There’s an acceptance of her life and my life and their differences. I don’t think she’d want my life, running around all the time, being recognised, all those things that come with it.” She pauses, then laughs: “But I’m sure she’d like to make as much money as I’m making!”

Cole grew up in a bohemian family that moved from Torquay to London when she was a baby. Her mother, an artist and a writer, was left on her own with two small daughters. I ask if she is more like her mother or father. She says her mother thinks she’s very much like her father, and Cole is not sure if that is meant as a compliment. He went to live in Spain about 15 years ago. She doesn’t really know why. “I guess he just preferred it there. He likes to make things. He built a boat, a 64ft yacht, because he wanted to sail around the world. He’d already built that by himself when he met my mum on the Bayswater Road. He was selling jewellery that he’d made and she was selling paintings.

“I don’t know him that well. I lived with my mum growing up in London. I take after my mum as well, because she’s an unusual, free-spirited person. She’s often said I take after my dad, his wild personality. Perhaps she’s just assigning the bad things to him. She thinks my stubbornness and my being quite smart comes from him.”

Does she see him at all? “Every year, every few years.” There is no hint of sadness, instead a hint of intrigue: intrigued by the father she doesn’t really know, intrigued by the maleness missing in her upbringing. There was no stepdad. And her mother still doesn’t have a boyfriend. At home there were just three 6ft redheaded females. Was that as fiery as it sounds? “Sure. I don’t think we clashed. Mum is a very peaceful woman. But me and my sister... What can I say? I’m calm now, but as a child I was very passionate. Either very happy or very loving or very raging. I was quite sure about things. Me and my sister fought a lot.” They get on well now, and her sister teaches at the primary school that she used to attend.

When she was a little girl she had a spell at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, which she hated.

“I went to a state school which did a lot of performing arts. I acted a lot there. I had a scholarship. Then I went to Latymer [in Hammersmith], and they had an amazing theatre department, but I was always away modelling so much, it didn’t make sense for me to do drama, because you have to rehearse with the whole group. But acting was the thing I always loved.”

Cole excelled at both arts and sciences. She did her maths GCSE a year early. “The logical part of me loved the idea of maths. I found the creative aspect of English harder because the marking is so ambiguous, whereas maths stuff is either right or wrong.” Her love of maths strikes me as odd. Everything else about her seems so spontaneous, fluid, ambiguous. Perhaps it partly explains why university is so important to her. Maybe it’s the intellectual challenge of maths that appeals to her.

Will she finish her degree? She deliberates. “I’m going to see. I would like to. I like learning. I was going to do social and political science, then I switched to history of art, but I could have done either. I can get impassioned about politics, but I find studying it can lead to a boxy way of looking at the world, so I was put off studying it.”

And her own personal politics? “I don’t think there’s one political system that’s watertight. I believe in freedom, personal liberty.”

She doesn’t want to be pinned down about this. She admires Obama, doesn’t commit her thoughts on Brown, and we go into a brief if vague discussion about the nature of freedom. She would make a great politician. She gives something of herself in every answer, but never necessarily answers the question you ask her.

Cole is not sure how her future will play out, but a bad boy, a yacht and a beach in the south of France would never be enough for her. Would she say she was conventional in any way? “What is the implication of that question? You don’t ask a person who you think is conventional that question. So the implication is you don’t think I’m very conventional.” She’s laughing rather than irritated. “My family is important, and my close friends are important, and believing in love is important. I haven’t got a lot of stability, because I’m running around, but I’m seeking stability in relationships with friends, family and lovers. So in those ways I am quite conventional. And I want to get married and have children. That’s quite conventional. It’s human nature.”

I wonder if she plans to marry her boyfriend, the LA-based 36-year-old American actor Enrique Murciano, who starred in the long-running detective series Without a Trace and who she’s been with for a year.

“Who knows?” she says, with a look that suggests she might really like that. “Yes,” she concedes. “I love him and he knows that. And he loves me. So we’ll see.”

I am sure she will mostly get what she wants. Parnassus, with all its dramatic background, is an incredible showcase. She went into it a model and has emerged as a rare talent who will one day be a draw in her own right.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6812668.ece

Offline lancecowboy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1495 on: Aug 30, 2009, 09:06 AM »
Thanks, ynnaf, she's amazing ... reminds me of Heath when he was doing A Knight's Tale, full of talents, hopes, and dreams.
Heath, you are loved, like this, always.

Offline froggy

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1496 on: Aug 30, 2009, 03:03 PM »
What fantastic videos

Thank you for posting links and info here x
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If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.
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Heath, I swear ...

Offline myprivatejack

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1497 on: Aug 31, 2009, 11:08 AM »
What fantastic videos

Thank you for posting links and info here x

I quote this¡ Thank you all ¡  :ghug:  :ghug:  :ghug: These informations serve to love Heath still more,if it's possible...
Ennis’s eyes gone bright with shock, mouth opening then closing again. “Love?” Ennis said finally, voice strangling in his throat.

Jack smiled sad. “Yeah, Ennis. Love.” Leaned forward and kissed Ennis’s temple, whispered, “What’d you think it was, all this time?”
("If I asked")
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You will be forever in my heart,friends.

Offline keren_b

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1498 on: Sep 19, 2009, 05:12 AM »
This is from an interview that Norman Wilner did with Terry Gilliam at the TIFF, I'm quoting the part where he talked about Heath.

Quote
There it is. Heath. I can’t not ask about Ledger – and, like virtually everyone else who worked with the actor, Gilliam is intensely protective of his friend’s memory.

“That’s the stuff that just makes me crazy,” he says. “It happened the other night here – a lady journalist came up to me and said ‘oh, yeah, all the drugs and everything really killed him.’”

Gilliam draws back in his chair, reliving the memory: “‘What the f*** are you talking about? You have no idea who that kid was.’ He was probably one of the most grounded people I’ve ever met. He was very old for his age – I’ve said he was about 240 years old when he died. There was such wisdom in that kid, and such excitement about everything; he was just learning, he was sucking it all in – and he was just getting better and better and better. We have lost probably the greatest actor of a couple generations. And just an extraordinary human being, as well. They don’t quite understand, and all that f***ing shit that was going on – that was not him."

“Heath had the ability which all the great actors had, which is the ability to play. It’s play, what they’re doing. When we were getting this thing going and he was shooting (The Dark Knight) in London, he used to come back giggling, and saying ‘you can’t believe what I got away with today! I worked with Gary Oldman’ – who he was utterly in awe of – ‘and I’m doing this scene, and Gary can’t do anything! I’m invulnerable! You can smash me to pieces, and I don’t care!’ And he was just giggling with glee. That’s what people don’t understand, because we’ve been so beaten to death by American method acting, thinking that you’ve got to ‘be’ the character. No, you play the character, that’s what you do.”

http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=979&p=11509#p11493
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Offline FlwrChild

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Re: Heath Ledger - News Articles and Tributes
« Reply #1499 on: Sep 19, 2009, 07:56 PM »
Thank you for posting this Keren.  :ghug:


That’s what people don’t understand, because we’ve been so beaten to death by American method acting, thinking that you’ve got to ‘be’ the character. No, you play the character, that’s what you do.”


That's a great distinction and a very good way of putting it. It's also something that Heath himself seemed to try to explain in a lot of interviews. That once he'd left the set, he left the characters and all their angst behind too. He was not the characters he played, he was just an amazingly talented artist who knew how to convince us for a couple hours at a time that he was.
For a moment in our lives. Forever in our hearts.

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