By RUSSELL BAILLIE
Heath Ledger. It's the sort of name that deserves a deep voice. It's sure got one. And right now it's rumbling towards us from Sydney where its owner — Heath Ledger, Hollywood It-Guy of the Moment — is briefly back home for a spot of r'n'r.
Oh, and to do his bit to help promote The Patriot, the $US100 million American Rev-olution action epic which has already won him serious attention. It has generated a star-in-the-making buzz which inevitably comes under the heading: "the new Mel Gibson."
That label was possibly hard to avoid, considering Ledger shares most of his screen time in The Patriot with the old Mel Gibson.
The 21-year-old plays Gabriel Martin, the defiant son of Gibson's widowed New World colonialist who is initially reluctant to fight the British.
"Basically," offers a gravel-toned Ledger, "it's a father-son love story ..." In between ambushes and bayonet charges, that is ...
"Yeah, exactly."
So was his casting a case of chip-off-the-old-blockbuster star? Hey, you kinda look like him, kinda sound like him, have a similar winning smile and, fancy that, you're both Aussies ...
"I guess that had something to do with it. I was very conscious, when we were working together, of finding little traits of his that I could duplicate, just to bring that connection as father and son."
You could say Ledger is the only good news to come out of The Patriot. It's had mixed reviews Stateside and fusillades from Brit historians who say the movie exaggerates the Redcoats' atrocities while whitewashing the exploits of Francis Marion, one of the inspirations for Gibson's character.
Predictably, Ledger disagrees with the critics about the merits of the film: "It's awesome. It really is awesome. It's shot beauti-fully. It looks amazing, there's big battle scenes, there's romance, the acting is really good. I'm not saying me. I'm just saying the actors around me are amazing."
Amazing or not, we've seen Mel do it all before, and in arguably better movies. Which has left Ledger to get the consolation praise, and it's been pretty effusive.
Newsweek says Ledger is "the real revelation in this Revolution." Meanwhile, this month's issue of Vanity Fair, which features Ledger looking particularly studly on the cover, describes him as "that rare phenomenon — an actor with the effortlessly seductive masculinity of a classic screen idol."
So it's little wonder that Ledger hasn't been lacking for work since. Straight after this chat he was off to Prague to film A Knight's Tale — "a jousting movie," he says, in which he plays a knight's squire who fakes his way into the armoured big time. And then he's signed up for The Four Feathers, a remake of the 1939 film, a Boy's Own adventure about a young officer's heroic efforts during Lord Kitchener's Egyptian campaign.
It might appear that Ledger's career is turning into an on-going military history lesson. He says The Patriot provided a crash course in the events of 1776: "I learned quite a bit about the American Revolution — a lot more about it than the average American would know, that's for sure."
Ledger's film career might also have been history had it not been for some good luck and an ability to say no.
The Perth-born actor headed to Sydney at age 16 and started winning television roles, including the lead in Roar, a series made in Australia by Fox — "Basically, it was a Braveheart rip-off," says Ledger, fully appreciating the Gibson-connected irony.
When the show was canned due to falling ratings, Ledger moved to the States and got himself an agent. His first film role was back in Sydney in Two Hands, the hilariously Australian mob movie in which Ledger played the hapless Jimmy, a chancer from Kings Cross. The role was opposite another wise old man of Oz acting, Bryan Brown.
The film, while a box office hit and award-winner at home, didn't get a cinematic release in the States: "The Americans had no idea what was going on ... 'What's a pikelet?' And it's not their fault, because it's so bloody Aussie. It's so subtle and it's a humour which New Zealand shares. That's probably why it didn't get a release in the States. Also the fact that there's a little kid firing a gun. It's a little sensitive there right now."
(Funnily enough The Patriot is full of kids firing guns — but muskets and only under adult supervision).
Ledger made his American debut as a brooding school hunk in Ten Things I Hate About You, a sprightly teen-comedy variation on The Taming of the Shrew.
Then came Ledger's year of Just Say No.
"I sat on my backside for a year because after Ten Things I Hate About You came out I had nothing but offers to play the same character in the same type of movie.
"Then The Patriot came and swept me up at the last minute. It was worth it, just saying no. It was definitely the most important year of my career. Just to say no."
Even getting The Patriot was a close-run thing. He initially botched the audition.
"I had two scenes prepared. Halfway through the second scene, I just stood up and left and said, 'I'm sorry, but I'm wasting your time. Thanks for your time, but I'm giving you a bad reading. Catch you later.'"
Fortunately, the film's makers were intrigued enough to ask Ledger back. Then his first day of filming opposite Gibson didn't go well either. As producer Dean Devlin told Newsweek: "Heath was a wreck. He was very upset with himself. When I went to talk to him, he said, 'You have to understand — there is no young, male Australian actor who doesn't want to be Mel Gibson.' And here he was, doing his first scene with him.
"The next thing I knew, I saw him and Mel go off together. I don't know if they were rehearsing or just getting to know each other. But the next day Heath was like a transformed person."
Touched by the hand of Mel? Whatever it was, it's likely that we'll be seeing the results of Ledger's transformation for a while yet.
Film Review: The patriot
Heath Ledger – Hollywood’s next big Aussie
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.