Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain
The Heath Ledger Hollywood wanted and the Heath Ledger we all remember, these are two very different things. Fifteen years after Ledger's death on January 22, 2008, we remember him as one of the brightest talents of his generation, an actor who liked heavy, heavy roles — roles in which he could immerse himself in, regardless of the possible side effects. p>
But this image of Ledger, a star who specialized in playing decaying men, drug addicts, psychopaths and cowboys, came only after years of wandering in the desert. Before his career changed role in the landmark novel Brokeback Mountain, he was a drifter. Now that Annie Proulx's gay cowboy story has been adapted for the stage, it seems like a good time to look back at the actor and his performance that made a splash in Hollywood.
«In a way, my career was spoon-fed, if you will,» Ledger told Time magazine in 2005. “It was completely fabricated by the studio, who thought they could put me on their posters and turn me into their bottle. Coca-Cola, their product. I didn’t really understand how to play, and suddenly they throw me in these main roles … All my mistakes are on the screen.
Snapped from Australian obscurity at 18 to star in a short-lived American television series (“He wanted to be Braveheart, but it turned out more like Xena: Warrior Princess,” as his co-star Vera Farmiga once said), Ledger became a movie star during the boom teen movies in the late nineties, he became a regular on VHS tapes of swooning teenage girls thanks to his role in the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You. But even then, Ledger was different from the leading men of his era. He was Brando in the sea of Freddie Prinze Jr.
The work that followed was, for the most part, somewhat below him. He has the swagger of a rock star in his medieval comedy A Knight's Tale, one of his early hits, but other installments were relentless bombs: three epic historical flops like The Patriot, Four Feathers, and Ned Kelly. and mindless occultism. thriller «Sin Eater».
Where Ledger felt at home was in less dramatic roles bristling with inner turmoil. For example, his brief cameo as a suicidal cop in the opening scenes of Monster's Ball, a role overshadowed by the film's later theatrics but entertaining enough to later land him the role of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.
Created nearly a decade earlier, with Gus Van Sant attached to direct and Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix lined up for the lead roles, this has long been hard to sell in Hollywood, not only when it comes to financiers but big-name banking names — Mark Wahlberg famously turned down the role of Ennis after consulting with his priest. It wasn't until Ang Lee, who had just released a string of critical hits including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Ice Storm, signed on that the film was finally launched.
Screenwriter Diana Ossana became a Ledger fan through her young daughter, who encouraged her to watch some of his films. She immediately fell in love with him and believed that he was the perfect incarnation of Ennis.
«This is obviously the most complex and inner character I've been asked to play,» Ledger said in 2006. — It was the ideal scenario; it was the perfect director. It was an untold story that is extremely rare in this industry or anywhere else. I thought I'd go crazy if I didn't.»
Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges in «Humpbacked» Mountain Credit : Manuel Harlan
Despite being warned by his agents that getting the part could be «career suicide», Ledger signed on, joined by Jake Gyllenhaal as his on-screen lover Jack. This is perhaps Ledger's most powerful performance — he is tragically stoic throughout, but with an open, pleading humanity that betrays his desperate desire to be loved. It's a well-crafted, but never overly technical piece of acting, despite the fact that much of what Ledger was on screen was incredibly specific and deliberate, especially his voice and facial expressions.
“I wanted the light to be too bright for him and the world to be too loud,” he explained in 2006. “But it's also the face of a real ranch. Even a stiff upper lip. It's what farmers in Australia do to keep the flies out of their mouths.»
Speaking in 2015, screenwriter Diana Ossana recalled that Ledger took his role incredibly seriously and was relieved whenever he had to be told he was doing a good job.
“At some point, Heath came up and said: “How am I doing, how am I doing?” Ossana recalls. “And I looked at him and said, ‘You make me cry,’ and he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he ran out of the building into the darkness. I ran after him and asked if he was okay and he said, «I just need some time alone.» And then he came back about 30 minutes later and repeated the scene. Such actors are rare in life.”
Ledger also received praise from Prue, who said in 2006 that Ledger erased Ennis's image as she wrote it in her original story. “He was so intuitive,” she explained. “How did this actor get into my head so well? He understood the character better than I did.»
'He was much older than his human years& #39;: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.
Jake Gyllenhaal dated Ledger before, they both started in the film industry at the same time, and both struggled to find their place in a film that often didn't know what to do with them as young actors.
“I have always admired Heath,” Gyllenhaal said. “In a way, he was far beyond his years. I didn't quite understand where it came from. I mean, I know he's from Perth, but I wasn't sure where he was from and I think most people got that feeling when they were around him and why he was so unusual.»
When filming began, Ledger almost immediately fell in love with actress Michelle Williams, who played his on-screen wife. The pair would become pseudo-parental figures on set, sharing a trailer and preparing meals for the cast and crew. At the height of the film's release, they will have a daughter, Matilda.
After Brokeback Mountain premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival, Ledger's performance was hailed as a revelation and immediately drew attention to the Oscars the following year. Writing for the New York Times, critic Stephen Holden described how Ledger «magically and mysteriously disappears under the skin of his lean, muscular character,» adding, «It's a superb on-screen performance that rivals the best of Marlon Brando.» /p> 
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams at the 2006 Academy Awards by Chris Polk
At the 2006 Oscars, many expected The Brokeback to take home the biggest trophy of the evening, an honor the film had won at almost every other major awards ceremony that year. But the movie lost out shamefully to Crash, the endlessly slanderous melodrama about racism starring Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon. Ledger was also rejected, with the Best Actor award going to Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman, who tragically also died of a drug overdose in the following years.
The snub contributed to accusations of institutional homophobia among Hollywood's old guard, a stance reinforced by the overwhelming controversy that surrounded the film throughout its release. It was ridiculed endlessly by Fox News conservative reporters and banned from some theaters in Salt Lake City due to its content. The film became an unexpected lightning rod for controversy, Christian groups labeled the film as gay propaganda, and Ledger and Gyllenhaal had to publicly defend or at least explain their decision to star in it. It was a shame then, and even more so today.
The Advocate's Brokeback Mountain cover
«I think it's a real shame,» Ledger told a journalist in 2005, who asked him about those who called the film «disgusting.» He continued, «I think it's immature for someone, really immature, [for them] to go out of their way to discuss or voice their disgust or negative opinion about how two people want to love each other. At the very least, give your opinion on how two people show hatred, violence or anger towards each other.
Although Ledger was honest, «Brokeback Mountain» cemented his reputation as a gay icon, and his eventual death caused particular mourning. from the queer community. Like James Dean and River Phoenix before him, Ledger was a beautiful, haunted movie star who was snatched from the world far too soon.
But the fact that Ledger achieved stardom by playing gay, tormented, injured, and unwaveringly sexy, and answered curious questions about the «problems» of kissing a man on screen with a casual shrug that only added to his appeal.
Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain By AP
queer community,” film theorist B. Ruby Rich said shortly after Ledger’s death. “It's almost like he was accepted as one of us, so his death felt very, very personal. People felt involved in what happened to him.”
When people talk about Ledger's fearlessness in Brokeback Mountain, it's often laced with a quieter strand of homophobia, as if he must have been incredibly brave to pretend to be in love with another man on screen — journalists in 2005 lazily asked questions about what it is. it was like kissing Gyllenhaal and playing some gay intimacy for him. It's an eye-roll-worthy question and pretty much misses the point when it comes to what was really brave about the role.
Faced with a career that would likely lead to more wealth and, at the time, far more fame (he famously turned down Spider-Man), Ledger abandoned it in favor of artistic experimentation, seeking out visionaries such as Ang Lee, Todd Haynes (in 2007's I'm Not There) and Terry Gilliame (in 2005's The Brothers Grimm and his latest film, 2009's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) and trying to emulate the creative diversity of past acting icons.< /p>
'There was something special about his fame for the queer community': Ledger and Gyllenhaal. Photo: Film Stills It was a choice that often led to ridicule during his lifetime, as evidenced by the irritating fan outrage that arose after his choice to play the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Derided in his early films, Ledger ended up delivering what is unquestionably one of the greatest movie villains of all time.
As with Brokeback Mountain, the career choice was risky and accompanied by ridiculous controversy, but ultimately something incredibly special.
When it came to his work, Ledger was often on the right side of history, and another tragedy is that he didn't live long enough to understand how right he was. Even for a man described as gloomy, brooding and extreme, he inevitably looked back at all this outrage and chuckled.
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