Heath Andrew Ledger

From a time when all he had was 69 cents to his name and enough supplies to last him a trip across his home country to quickly becoming one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars, Heath Ledger has a lot to be thankful for. One could successfully argue that a combination of innate intelligence, unmatchable talent, and extreme stubborness has brought Heath where he is today. He has gained the respect and admiration of "Patriot" costar and mentor Mel Gibson who states, "Heath possesses an unlikely combination: he has incredible presence, yet he has no fucking pretensions."

Heath first got his start in the Globe Shakespeare Company in Perth, Australia. Catching the acting bug from his older sister Kate, Heath went on to star in the title role of "Peter Pan." He was smitten. "I just loved it," he says, "and kept doing it. I blinked my eyes and I was getting paid. Doors kept opening and I kept walking through them."

During his time at Guildford Grammar school, Heath maintained his interest in both drama and sports, obtaining numerous hockey awards as well as receiving honors in drama and being appointed the captain of the drama team in 1996. Heath also coordinated a team to take part in a nationwide high-school dance competition known as Rock Eisteddfod. "We were the first all-guys school to ever do it," states Heath. "I choreographed the whole thing. These kids had never danced and didn't think they could do it. By the end, when they won the competition, they were so blown away by it."

Heath's parents divorced when he was at age 10, yet he maintains that he was not devastated by the event. "The point I got to very quickly, after my parents' divorce, was to realize that they were just humans," he says. Heath still remains close with his father, saying that "our relationship went from being hin each other's face to being best friends. I guess that comes from understanding him as an adult now that I'm an adult." His immediate family has extended with half sisters Olivia and Ashleigh, whom he wishes he could spend more quality time with. "I feel like Im a stranger to them," Heath admits. "Thats why I try to get back as much as possible."

Finishing high school a year early at 16, he urged his friend Trevor DiCarlo (his best friend since he was 3 years old) to drive 2600 miles to Sydney in search of fame and fortune. "It was really about exploring life," says Heath. "I just wanted to get on that train that was flying past at 90 miles an hour. And my job was an excuse to get out and just do that." Heath's movie debut was in a 1997 Australian teen drama "Blackrock" which led him to a breakthrough part as the first Australian television gay role on "Sweat," a show about young Olympic hopefuls. "He had the choice of two roles," recalls his father. "One was the swimmer and the other was the gay bicyclist. I was thinking to myself, Yeah, he'll choose the swimmer! I used to be a swimmer when I was younger. This'll be great! But then he told me he chose the gay role. I went, 'Oh, God . . . well, O.K.' But his rseponse to that was 'Look, Dad, this is more of an acting role. So if I want to get some sort of recognition, that's the one I should be doing.' He wasn't fazed by any of the other stuff."

Soon he was starring in Fox's medieval drama "Roar," where Heath played a Celtic warrior prince. "Ironically, it was a 'Braveheart' rip-off," he says. "It was shot beautifully, and the script was half decent." Costarring as Heath's young wife was neophyte Keri Russell whom writers mistakenly killed off in the early episodes. "They shouldn't have let her die," Heath notes. "We worked together really well. And after they killed her, they were going through all the possibilities of how they could get her back. Couldn't come up with anything." Although the show was cancelled, it won the loincloth-clad Ledger legions of female fans and eventually an agent in the States.

While auditioning for roles in the States, Heath was hired for "Two Hands," a new black comedy which, ironically, brought him back to Australia. "You've apparently got to leave the country to get work," he laughs. "It cleaned up in Australia and it won all the awards." Unfortunately, the film didn't fare so well when played for audiences at Sundance. "I don't think I've met one American who fully understands exactly what's going on in that movie," jokes Heath. After "Two Hands," Heath had two days to get to Seattle from Sydney to begin shooting "Ten Things I Hate About You," with Julia Stiles. "I had no rehearsals, nothing. I just basically turned up and went, Uh, what am I doing?"

After "Ten Things," Heath refused succumb to the big-money lure of the youth-movie genre and waited over a year before accepting any work. "There's little depth in those scripts," he says about the numerous teen based movie scripts he was sent. "You can only take the psyche of a teenager to a certain level. "I was literally living off Ramen noodles and water just because I was sticking to my guns. It was very hard because they offer you so much money," says Heath. "I guess I had thrown myself into a higher league of actors on a list that I probably shouldn't have been on at that point, but saying no turned out to be a lot more valuable than saying yes."

After holding out for a year, Heath beat out nearly 200 actors for his role "The Patriot," in which he stars as a zealous Revolutionary War rebel at odds with his battle-weary father, played Mel Gibson. Heath revealed that after auditioning, he had to await a while, saying, "It was terrible. It was awful. For every day for three weeks they said: Tomorrow you're going to know, I promise you." He had also heard that Ryan Phillippe had been up for the role, saying, "Ryan did a really amazing screen test as well. The executives and everyone said: Fine, we'll leave it up to the director. If you pick this guy the movie's going to go this way and if you pick that guy the movie's going to go that way two different movies."

Name: Heath Andrew Ledger (not Heathcliffe, says he)

Birthday: April 4, 1979

Star Sign: Aries

Birthplace: Subiaco Hospital in Perth, Western Aus., Austraila

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: (Naturally) light brown/medium blonde

Height: 6'4"

Parents: Sally (mother) and Kim (father)

Siblings: Cate, and half sisters Ashleigh and Olivia

Marital Status: Single

Current Residence: Los Angeles, California

Hobbies: Surfing, snowboarding, poetry, photography, painting, reading

Five Things That Make Heath Happy: family, friends, warmth, humour and love

While most 21 year-old males are busy fulfilling their hormonal destiny, HEATH LEDGER sits in a hotel room talking about his latest movie ("The Patriot") and Hollywood heavyweights Mel Gibson and the "Independence Day" team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin.

So what does this young hunk from Perth, Australia know about playing an American soldier in 1776? Does it matter? I mean look at him! Well, lucky for us all, he does manage to do a bang-up job in the role.

Here's how our little chat went...

Betty: Being an Australian. How much did you know before this movie about the whole American Revolution?
Heath: I knew the basics. We didn't study it as a major in High School. We kind of focused on Australia, our own history, I guess. But we knew little bits and pieces. I had to do a little bit of research for it.

Betty: Was there anything like this in Australian history?
Heath: Any battles? No.

Betty: What about the British?
Heath: They didn't teach that they were evil. There has definitely been a competitive spirit between Australia and England, you know, by us being the convicts and such.

Betty: Can you tell us how you landed your role in the movie?
Heath: It was really just a simple process of auditioning on how I got into it. Actually, the first time I met with Roland and Dean we just sat in a room. We had a digital camera set up and I had two scenes to prepare for. I was halfway through my second scene and it was fucking lousy, so I dropped my head, and I stopped and I said, "Look I'm really sorry, I'm really embarrassed, but I'm going to have to leave now because I'm wasting your time, and I'm wasting my time." I just felt like shit.

I stood up and shook their hands and walked out with my tail between my legs and my head down. And then they rang back like three days later, and I guess they were a little curious, so they said to come back and show them what I really could do. So I went back and did another reading and they liked it and decided to scene test me. And after we did like four scenes they dragged Mel in and stood us to the camera and said, "They look like father and son." And then that was it.

Betty: Did you start out with a real big intimidation factor because Mel Gibson is such a big star - not just here, but in Australia as well.
Heath: I guess I did. Definitely for the first two weeks I was so nervous. The first scene I had with him I hadn't been in front of the camera for over a year. And the first scene I was doing was with Mel Gibson, who was like Mad Max, to me. So yeah, I was really nervous. But he put me at ease straight away. It wasn't long until I realized he was just a great guy. He's really a lovely man. He gives everyone a piece of his time, including me. And so I got over that pretty quickly.

Heath Ledger in "The Patriot"

Betty: After going back in time for all of these movies, do you enjoy the world you live in now? Or do you long for the old days?
Heath: The world I live in now?

Betty: The contemporary world.
Heath: Yeah. Absolutely.

Betty: Do you ever think, "What if I had lived two centuries ago"?
Heath: I don't know. It's novel I guess. The one thing I have realized is there was a few differences living back in those days in terms of the relationships - especially between father and son. It wasn't as liberal as it is today. But generally, they're people like you and I, just living in a different time. I guess it's fairly similar.

Betty: A lot of your contemporaries are getting type cast in fluffy romantic comedies. Are you turning them down in order to do stuff that's more significant?
Heath: Well after I did, "Ten Things I Hate About You" - I just didn't want to go down that path. I think I just got to a point where I'd rather just go home, rather then do that again. And it wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, or I didn't appreciate that it was coming, it was just that I wanted to go after really great material, to read really great scripts and meet some filmmakers and get out there. I was lucky that I did.

Betty: A lot of your American contemporaries are getting type cast in fluffy romantic comedies. Are you not getting offered those kind of parts or are you turning them down in order to do stuff that is more significant?
Heath: Well after I did, "Ten Things I Hate About You" - I just didn't want to go down that path. I think I just got to a point where I'd rather just go home, rather then do that again. And it wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, or I didn't appreciate that it was coming, it was just that I wanted to go after really great material, to read really great scripts and meet some filmmakers and get out there. I was lucky that I did.

Betty: I know you're totally busy right now with shooting so many different films, but what do you do with your spare time? Do you even have spare time?
Heath: I take a lot of photos of people.

Betty: Did you shoot photos on the set of "The Patriot"?
Heath: Yeah, I did!

Betty: Any special focus in your photography?
Heath: No, not necessarily. I try to keep pretty open-minded on what I shoot.

Betty: So when you finally got a chance to spend some time with Mel, did you ask for any helpful hints?
Heath: Ha! No. I bit my tongue. I didn't have to, because I knew regardless, I was going to learn a lot from him. You'd be stupid if you didn't, you know? Anyone can learn anything from him, but it's about opening yourself up to it. And I did, I completely opened myself up and soaked it up.much as I could.

Betty: Can you share anything with us?
Heath: I learned a lot, you know, professionally and socially about the industry. And, I guess the one thing I did learn which I can share with you, is just how to relax in the industry, especially professionally and on set. He keeps his head completely clear. And when he comes on set, he's not walking around stressing about his lines and stressing about his scenes. As soon as he gets on set he talks to everyone and he's joking and laughing and lively, and humorous. And he keeps his head really clean, but you can tell in the back of his mind he knows what he's doing. He's got it all in there. I needed that. 'Cause when I got on the set I was so stressed out, I was a wreck.

Betty: I think this role is going to give you a lot of crazy fans. Do you have that right now, like girls going nuts over you?
Heath: I don't know. I guess. I know on the Internet it's a little crazy. But I don't go on the Internet at all. And I've kind of been away from it, you know? When it all started happening in Australia, I just wasn't there, and so I go back every six months and I see it. And now, with all this happening over here, I'm not here, I'm in Prague working and drinking beer. So, I don't know, it's all very new.