Word: ledger
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Those who have missed Ledger's work to date are in luck because they can start with his latest, Brokeback Mountain, an elegiac western about two gorgeous, lonely young people who find in each other a passion and a long-sought sense of belonging but who cannot be together. Oh, and they're both guys...
...Ledger plays a tightly wound sheepherder named Ennis Del Mar, who if this were a more traditional romance would be the female. He is the one who's pursued, who withdraws, who has to be won over. But there's nothing girly about Ledger's Del Mar. He's classic cowboy, from the way he wrangles his words out through lips opened barely half an inch to his habit of donning his hat to ward off anyone coming too close. Del Mar doesn't have too much to say, but he's got a Russian novel's worth of body...
That is not a philosophy Ledger subscribes to. Shy in demeanor but headstrong as a buffalo, he's not much for talking; he just up and does what he wants to. When he arrived in Los Angeles seven years ago, pursuing a woman, he had done some Australian TV and a few small movies and was completely broke. "We were going to dinner one night," says Gregor Jordan, a friend and the director of two of his films (Two Hands and Ned Kelly). "He put his credit card in the ATM, and it swallowed it because he was so overdrawn...
...many actors, that chain of events is a dream come true. Ledger is not one of them. "In a way, I was spoon-fed, if you will, a career. It was fully manufactured by a studio that believed that they could put me on their posters and turn me into their bottle of Coca-Cola, their product," he says, his fingers fidgeting with anything he can find--a pencil, his scraggly beard, his beat-up old Samsung phone, the buttons on his army-style coat. "I hadn't figured out properly how to act, and all of a sudden...
...movie is partly set, voters just overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on gay marriage. But producer James Schamus is confident people will see the love story, not the politics. "Young girls are going to be a huge part of this movie," he says. And that's largely because of Ledger. "He's managed to become a bit of a movie star and at the same time to protect his own vulnerability...