Heath Ledger’s Behavior During His Last Year Alive Is Showing Him In A Whole New Light

Back in 2007, the new year had started off quite well for the Australian actor. Heath Ledger, for some time, had been contemplating making a move into directing. January was the time Ledger began taking those ideas seriously.

Ledger approached Isaac Brock, the lead singer of indie rock band, Modest Mouse. The actor wanted to helm the band’s upcoming music video for “King Rat.” The song was about illegal commercial whaling, something Ledger felt strongly about.

By February, the awards season was in full swing and the Oscars ceremony was fast approaching. Brokeback Mountain, up for eight Academy Awards, told the story of forbidden lovers in Wyoming, where Ledger starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

Despite glowing reviews, conservative media outlets lashed upon the film’s release. Protests formed. The matter was made even more complicated for Ledger when those in charge of the Oscars wanted to poke fun at one of its contenders.

Both Gyllenhaal and Ledger were asked to present at the ceremony. But after Ledger learned that a joke about Brokeback had been included in the show’s opening, which focused on his film’s subject matter, he rejected it.

Brokeback Mountain went on to stake an important place within Hollywood’s queer cinema history. No doubt, Ledger’s stance to hold up the film like any other big blockbuster epic helped tremendously. From there, the actor turned to an entirely different challenge.

Not long after Oscar season, Ledger secured the role of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Some comic book fans scoffed that this handsome leading man could take on Gotham’s darkest villain. The actor, who wholeheartedly committed to his projects, brought an intensity that blew everyone away.

In hindsight, many fans believed the Joker was the catalyst that led to Ledger’s accidental overdose. But the truth couldn’t be further away. The dedication he had put himself under for the role, wasn’t damaging his health. In fact, Ledger felt invigorated.

The media narrowed onto the fact that Ledger isolated himself in a hotel, scribbling thoughts in his “Joker’s diary.” Whenever questioned about his rather unorthodox methods, Ledger could have shrugged. The character was unorthodox, after all.

From his fellow cast mates to even his family, they all agreed. Ledger was having a blast during The Dark Knight. The Joker was a role with many challenges. From a dedicated fan base to differentiating his version from others, Ledger was up for it all.

Then filming was over, The Dark Knight went into the edit room, and Ledger’s work was done. At that point, he admitted the performance was “physically and mentally draining.” By the summer of 2007, another big transition came for the actor, albeit a much more personal one.

Ledger had been romantically involved with actress Michelle Williams since 2004. Although they weren’t married, they had a daughter together, which made their breakup that summer all the more difficult.

However, difficult the split was, there’s no denying that Heath embraced fatherhood. The introspective actor said, “I think you also look at death differently — it’s like a catch-22. I feel good about dying now, because I’m alive through her, but at the same time you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the rest of her life.”

While several news outlets tried to blame the split on Ledger’s drug use, Williams never and has never confirmed it. But it certainly affected Ledger’s mental health. He couldn’t stand being away from his daughter for so long.

Health problems further affected Ledger as the year went on. He was casted in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and the shoot was a demanding one, forcing those involved to work long, frigid nights in London.

Many of the cast got sick due to the conditions. Ledger seemingly had it worse. Besides a cold that never went away, Ledger had a severe case of insomnia. He was lucky to have slept up to an hour or two a night.

By Christmas time, Ledger had a break from filming and traveled to see his family in Australia. The year of 2007 had been one of the bests for Ledger creatively. No one had any idea that it would have been his last.

On January 22, 2008, Ledger was found unresponsive in his apartment bedroom. The autopsy found he had died from an accidental overdose of prescribed medications. Upon hearing the news, Terry Gilliam halted production on Doctor Parnassus.

In an act to honor Ledger’s memory, Gilliam resumed work. In doing so, he replaced the titular character with three actors who were close to Ledger: Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Collin Farrell.

By the next Oscars ceremony, Ledger’s performance of the Joker was nominated. And when the category came up, Ledger won the Best Supporting Actor award posthumously, being only the second to do so.

Elsewhere, the animation Ledger worked on for the Modest Mouse music video was released. In the wake of his death, friends and family ensured Heath Ledger was remembered as an artist with so much more potential. One of his closest loved ones shared a heartbreaking revelation about this loss.

Michelle Williams still holds Ledger close to her heart, and their daughter Matilda is the key to those memories. “Every time I really miss him and wonder where he’s gone, I just look at her,” the actress said. She’s been carrying an unknown burden for years.

Though Michelle Williams was born in Montana, she and the family packed up and moved to San Diego when she was nine years old. Michelle endured relentless bullying for years while attending Santa Fe Christian Schools, prompting her to be home-schooled after finishing ninth grade.

Michelle Williams attained her GED and was legally emancipated from her parents at the ripe age of 15! No worries, though, Michelle clarified the decision was simply a career strategy, as legal emancipation would allow her to work longer hours on set than regular minors. A true trailblazer.

Michelle’s first credited role was her portrayal of April Porter in 1994’s Lassie. She came very close to not getting the part, as My Girl‘s Anna Chlumsky was initially the first choice.

Since she wasn’t feeling too fulfilled by the roles she was being offered in 1997, Michelle and friends Amy Danles and Megahn Perry cowrote a progressive, insightful screenplay for a film about three girls who seek out sex work in a Nevada brothel. They called it Don’t Blink.

In 1998, at just 16, Michelle landed her first breakout role playing angsty teen Jen Lindley on a little teen drama called Dawson’s Creek; you may have heard of it. Though she starred in it for all six seasons, Michelle feared she’d forever be typecast as a “pop tart.”

In fact, Michelle met her lifelong BFF, Busy Philipps, during her time on Dawson’s Creek. Busy played character Audrey Liddell in seasons five and six. The duo is so close that Busy is godmother to Matilda Ledger, Michelle and the late Heath Ledger’s daughter.

In 2000, Michelle had to choose between two offers: one was a role in a play called Killer Joe, and the other was in a movie about “cheerleaders who carry guns.” While the play would only entertain around 200 people, the movie gig would earn her boatloads of cash. She chose the play.

Michelle portrayed the youngest daughter in Killer Joe, a role that required her to fully unclothe at times. Though her parents weren’t too thrilled with the nudity, Michelle described the experience as “cathartic and freeing.” Juno Temple played the same character in the 2011 film adaption.

A star-making role came Michelle’s way in 2005 when she played Heath Ledger’s onscreen wife in Brokeback Mountain. Considering the two dated after meeting on set, it’s wild to think Heath almost declined the role of Ennis Del Mar because the studio initially thought he “wasn’t macho enough.”

Despite Brokeback Mountain boasting stellar reviews and three Oscar wins, Santa Fe Christian Schools’ headmaster condemned the film’s LGBTQ+ content. “I never really liked him much anyway. […] There are always going to be people with contrary opinions but I’m awfully proud of the film,” Michelle stated in response.

Michelle had a horrific time coping with Heath Ledger’s tragic 2008 passing, but later described that following year as one “of magical thinking.” She remembered the impossible feeling possible to her. “It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a door or could appear behind a bush.”

Michelle can act circles around pretty much anyone, and her four Oscar nominations back that up. She’s been nominated for her performances in Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, and Manchester by the Sea. She does have an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards under her belt!

Blue Valentine is ultimately one of the bleakest depictions of a deteriorating relationship out there, and Michelle and Ryan Gosling were determined to assure they really perfected that sense of misery. They took the method acting route, literally moving in together for four weeks during filming.

Considering almost every film Michelle acts in is tragically depressing and not so kid-friendly, her daughter, Matilda, didn’t grow up watching mama’s work. Michelle reportedly took the role of Glinda the Good Witch in 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful solely so Matilda could see her mother onscreen!

Not only is Michelle a gifted thespian, but she can also carry a tune like a songbird! Michelle utilized her vocal talents in films like The Greatest Showman, My Week with Marilyn, The Baxter, and The United States of Leland. No voice doubles here!

Speaking of My Week with Marilyn, Michelle initially shooed away the film’s representatives who approached her about playing pop culture and sex icon Marilyn Monroe. She wound up taking the part, but boy was she nervous. “I was waking up in cold sweats for six months in anticipation of it.”

Michelle won a Golden Globe Award in 2012 for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. “I spent six months trying to talk myself out of it. But I always knew that I never really had a choice. I’ve started to believe that you get the piece of material that you were ready for.”

After Heath Ledger’s death, the paparazzi flocked to Michelle and her daughter, disrupting their grieving process. The intensity forced the two to discreetly move away to upstate New York. So Michelle was flabbergasted to find a flyer in her local post office asking townies to call a dedicated number upon spotting the star.

Considering Michelle and Christina Ricci were both naive 19-year-old starlettes when they filmed 2001’s Prozac Nation in Canada, the two were stoked about being able to legally drink, prompting them to party every single night of filming. Michelle later confessed it was a “dark time” for both of them.

In 2011, Michelle explained to British Elle the heartbreaking reason she always kept her platinum blonde locks short. “I cut it for the one straight man who has ever liked short hair and I wear it in memorial of somebody who really loved it.” The man in question was Heath Ledger.

Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight won him an Oscar Award after his death, which the world collectively mourned. He poured himself into the role so utterly that it wreaked havoc on his mental health, a contributing factor to his death by accidental prescription drug overdose. And Heath wasn’t the only one haunted by a gruesome character.

Peabody starred in Wes Craven’s horror classic Last House on the Left. To keep the atmosphere intense, Craven told the actors playing her attackers to stay in character. She was terrified throughout and to this day she refuses to participate in any cast reunion projects.

In Rosemary’s Baby, Farrow’s character believes that a Satanic cult is after her unborn baby. In one scene, she was instructed to eat raw liver… even though she was a strict vegetarian. Director Roman Polansky made her do a number of takes, too!

In Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, McDowell’s character is forced to watch violent movies in a bid to cure his criminal tendencies. He was temporarily blinded during the scene and the antique eye clamps that were used sliced his corneas.

In the sci-fi classic Alien, one of the eponymous creatures bursts out of chest of actor John Hurt. Cartwright was hit in the face with a stream of fake blood—a movie prop she wasn’t expecting—and she passed out cold.

Many strange things happened on the set of The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Carpenter was frequently woken by her hotel’s clock radio blasting music at weird hours of the night. She hasn’t watched a horror movie since.

In the horror movie Possession, Adjani plays a woman whose weird behavior leads her husband to question whether or not she has been possessed. The film was so upsetting for the actress that she had to seek mental help afterward!

The three main stars of The Blair Witch Project were sent out to go camping at night by their director. He then took away their food and asked other actors to terrifying them during the night. All three have spoken about the trauma it caused.

In the final scene of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Burns was tied to a chair and cruelly attacked by the members of the Sawyer family. In the movie, the torment lasts only five minutes, but in reality it took 26 traumatizing hours to shoot.

When The Birds star refused the romantic advances of her director, Alfred Hitchcock, he replaced the mechanical birds meant to attack her in a scene with real birds… then he kept reshooting the scene until she was bruised, bloodied, and done with movie-making forever.

This one-time child star and now Real Housewife of Beverly Hills still talks about how she played cards with Michael Meyers on the set of Halloween. However, it wasn’t all fun and games. The experience was so scary she refused to ever be in another horror flick again.

In the movie Poltergeist, Williams knew there was a scene where she would swim with skeletons… she just thought they would be fake. They weren’t. She claims that doing so caused objects in her house to be moved by a malevolent spirit.

After filming the iconic shower murder scene in Psycho, Leigh refused to ever take another shower. She would only take baths—and the door and windows had to be tightly locked.

The trauma Blair faced after appearing as a possessed little girl in The Exorcist didn’t occur during filming, but afterward! The media and several religious officials made statements saying she clearly to needed to go through a real exorcism.

By all accounts, Duvall should have been a household name; however the trauma of filming The Shining all but exhausted her and marked the peak of her career. Director Stanley Kubrick made her reshoot the infamous baseball bat scene 127 times until her hands were raw and her hair actually began to fall out.

When it came time to play the role of Hunter S. Thompson in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Depp didn’t hold back… maybe to a fault. His drinking became as heavy as his hero’s during the shoot and is thought to have never gotten back under control.

The actress went on an extreme diet to play the role of the dying Fantine is Les Miserables. She also shaved her head, and it took an emotional toll on her. “I was in such a state of deprivation—physical and emotional. When I got home, I couldn’t react to the chaos of the world without being overwhelmed,” she said.

While filming the horror movie The Conjuring, Farmiga was so unsettled by the contents of her script that she wouldn’t even bring it home with her. She claimed that whenever she opened her computer during the shoot, it had three digital claw marks running down it!

While nothing happened on the set of The Matrix, there is believed to be a curse on the cast members. After shooting, Reeves’s girlfriend gave birth to a stillborn baby. She then tragically died in a car crash.

Playing the role of private investigator Eddie Valiant in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? spent all of his time acting opposite characters who weren’t actually there. Hoskins got so involved in this world that he actually started to hallucinate offset!