Why I give a damn about the death of Heath Ledger

[perpetual_motion]

The thing about Heath Ledger’s death, for me, is this: I’m a huge movie fan, and I’m finally, at the age of 25, to the point in my life where I get to attach my loving eyes to certain actors and watch them for the next fifty years. My parents still track Robert Redford and Paul Newman and Meryl Streep. All fine actors. All actors I enjoy watching. But Heath Ledger, I thought, was going to be an actor for me, for my generation. I would be able to tell people, thirty years from now, that I saw Heath Ledger in Ten Things I Hate About You when it was in theaters.

Heath Ledger was going to be my Paul Newman. I was going to get to watch him be talented for decades to come. I was going to get to talk about his new movies and talk about his old movies and talk about how much I enjoyed him as an actor until I was old and brittle and bitching about the lack of true content in movies nowadays.

And it matters to me that Heath Ledger’s dead because I love movies, and I really was looking forward to watching Heath Ledger on screen and being able to say I watched him when. I’ve always thought he was talented, and I was looking forward to seeing more of that talent, and now, after The Dark Knight, I won’t get to see it in any new form again.

Comments

*memories this*

[lasergirl.livejournal.com]

I love you for saying this. All of it. Because I agree with you and, while I can't say I loved or hated him, he was really *good* and yeah, I was looking forward to seeing more of him.

And watching Dark Knight is going to be TOUGH.

Re: *memories this*

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

And I think whether you loved or hated Heath Ledger as a person, you can certainly say he was talented and growing as an actor with every role. My god, I've watch TDK trailer a dozen times because I still can't believe I'm listening to his voice or even seeing his movements. I was so thrilled that TDK was on its way, because I was so excited to see him as Joker, and now it's going to be very bittersweet.

[vkai.livejournal.com]

Well said. I was talking with one of my co-workers today about him and we both heard about it on the radio. I told her that when I heard it, I didn't actually believe it at first--it was all a bit surreal. She agreed. He wasn't flashy or anything, and I guess I liked that about him. And he was one of those who could be so versatile--I mean, gay cowboy AND world-famous supervillain? Iti's still a bit hard to believe he's dead.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

One of my friends compared him to James Dean today, and I had to agree. There was so much talent there, and now we don't get to see where it goes.

God, and the trailer for TDK made me so *excited* for his Joker. It's stunning, even in that minute and a half. And now I know it's going to really make me sad to see it in a way, because after TDK, that's it. He was filming another movie, but whether or not they're far enough along to make it work is up in the air.

[xtrustno1x.livejournal.com]

I was talking with my Mom about this same thing earlier. I'm still just kind of shocked by it all, and really bothered by the way the media is handling everything.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

Five will get you ten it'll be labeled an "accidental overdose" when, in fact, it was probably just a complete accident. The man had pneumonia, and was on god knows what for it [short list: inhaler, prescription cough medicine, decongestant], and then he probably couldn't sleep because he felt like ass [personal experience here], and didn't think about popping the same sleeping pill he'd taken a dozen times before.

It's not an "accidental overdose". It's an "accident". But I know it's not going to play that way.

[royalwhore.livejournal.com]

Meant to say this earlier, but well put. You managed to explain to me why I was so bothered by it. Then I got to thinking about how I'm really not sure there's any other male actor out there that I can say the same thing about. At least, not in the same way. (For example, Orlando Bloom is talented, but I also think he's at risk of becoming a character actor.) He was so versatile, and when he was doing "indie" movies, you knew it wasn't because that was what was "in" because he'd done them his whole career. I always really respected that.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

With a couple of very notable exceptions [The Order comes to mind], Heath Ledger also had really good taste. He seemed to go looking for nuanced roles that he could really play with, and he came up with something completely different every time. I love actors that can fuck with my head like that, and so it's a blow.