Heath Ledger

Interview By: Dan Portnoy
DanielPortnoy@TheCinemaSource.com

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The chances of catching this young, attractive, personable Australian native on screen have increased since his breakout role in the American film, 10 Things I Hate about You. Although his role in the film may not have been ideal for Heath Ledger, it put his name on the map. Since then he has been popping up all over the place, quickly becoming one of Hollywood's more recognizable young talents. He sits at a rounded table, eyes forward with a slight smile across his face, focused and eager to talk about his new film, The Brothers Grimm, which happens to be one of this summer's films people should actually get out and see. The film itself is a compilation of genres, packed full of action, adventure, comedy and a few startling surprises spawned from the creative mind of its director, Terry Gilliam.

The Brothers Grimm, loosely based on the lovable German fairytales, tells the story of two sibling con artists, Jacob (Ledger) and Wilhelm (Matt Damon), who go from village to village pretending to cast out mystical creatures and age old folkloric beings. By giving the townsfolk a false sense of security, the two can make a steady profit handling and disposing of imaginary danger. It isn't long before karma catches up with the two brothers when real spirits and real danger threaten a small village. Time for the true valor of Jacob and Wilhelm to be tested; who knows if the imaginative world Gilliam created will allow them to succeed.

Whether they do succeed in the film or not, Heath was glad to be working with a director like Gilliam, whose notoriety for creating films that stretch the imagination had him immediately intrigued. 'We [Heath and Damon] both came on board with the same level of enthusiasm for working with Terry, wanting to do our jobs. So we saw eye to eye on everything. It really wasn't a stretch for us.'

Agreeable as things may have been, the fantastic world that Gilliam created demanded a great deal from everyone involved in the film, especially the actors. 'It was Terry who dared us to be bad, who allowed us to be eccentric or bigger. We had to be big because we're competing with his sets and the beautiful world he's creating and if we weren't bigger we would have been chewed up by it.' Big they were indeed and therefore chewed up they were not. Heath and Damon still experienced new things around every corner making the actual filming of the movie more exciting than 'Grimm.' Sorry, I couldn't resist.

'We had heaps of fun, every day was just different.' And if there's something that Heath enjoys, it's varying the type of characters he plays from film to film. With a fear of being typecast, particularly as the young studly rebellious type, Heath has jumped at the chance to play different kinds of characters. His performances in The Patriot, Monsters Ball, The Order and now The Brothers Grimm, all paint a picture of Heath's versatility and increasing talent.

In Grimm, Ledger and his co-star Damon had some very noticeable chemistry on screen, which is a result of their friendship off-screen. 'I think the friendship, the bonding just kind of happened naturally; we didn't sit down and have bonding sessions.' What goes on in a 'bonding session' anyway' Whatever they did it worked because they were successfully able to transfer their natural off-screen camaraderie onto the big screen.

In preparation for their roles, both Heath and Damon worked together to better define their characters and feed off each other's suggestions on how to play them. 'We had about four weeks before we started shooting'we collaborated on ideas for each other's characters, working on accents, and horse riding.' This 'joint-effort' helped to better round the characters, which definitely made them more fun to watch and made their relationship as brothers more believable. 'We wanted to present different qualities as brothers but also have similarities, like the fact that we wouldn't stand with brave faces in the face of danger, we would scream like little girls and run away.' Not everyone can be a fearless brawny superhero, but it's those unlikely ones who make the ride to victory so much more interesting.

When working on a film that has so much going on, the elaborate detail of the sets, the ability of the actors to become one with the vision of Terry Gilliam, there had to be some things that went on that were out of the ordinary and not shown in the film. 'There was a horse that died, the horse that I kind of danced with at one point'natural causes.' As if dancing with a horse isn't weird enough, that's just the kind of fantasy world that Gilliam brought to life in The Brothers Grimm.

In the near future we can expect to see Heath Ledger diversifying his roles further, gradually increasing his ability and enjoyment of the profession. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of Heath in the years to come, especially since he has three films in the works set for 2005 releases. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.