Wondering if well-known prankster Mel Gibson pulled any fast ones on co-star Heath Ledger on the set of The Patriot?

"He didn't!," a surprised Ledger tells TV Guide Online. "That was the prank. And I was waiting the whole shoot; I was waiting for somebody to turn over my trailer or my trailer to turn up somewhere, something!" This 4th of July, Aussie native Ledger says he'll be celebrating his independence on a grand scale. "I'm twenty-one years old, I'm on a journey, I left my tribe and I've got my flask and my spear," he says of his pilgrimage to Hollywood. "I said, 'I'm going off on my journey. I'll see you in ten years. I'll come back with goods and life stories and emotions and I'll share them with you.'"

The actor, who proved he has what it takes to star opposite Gibson, says he won't let the competitiveness of Tinsletown deter him. "It's a matter of not letting anything, the industry and all the bulls--t and the hype and people blowing smoke up your a-- and all, get to you. When you're a kid and you're sixteen and you leave home and go out in the world, you got to have confidence. Otherwise you're eaten up, especially in this town. You get chewed up and spit out. And I wasn't gonna do that."

Ledger says he keeps himself grounded with a little help from his friends. "I've got a best friend of mine, Trevor, he drove with me across Australia. I've known him since I was three. We haven't spent two months apart. He gives me confidence and he keeps me the same because I've never changed with him. We're like brothers. And so I can't change."

- Lauren Kane and

July 04, 2000

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