The one role that humbled Heath Ledger: “It made my job easier”
Strong-willed and determined, the dirty-blonde-haired Aussie, Heath Ledger, would drive cross-country to play a small role in Clowning Around. Ledger played various roles in Ship to Shore, Roar, Blackrock, 10 Things I Hate About You and more. However, it was not until he secured the role of Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee’s 2005 flick Brokeback Mountain that the audience realised his true potential. At 26, he was also the ninth-youngest nominee to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Ledger’s career seemed set for a Hollywood heartthrob trajectory that would cement his tenure as a classic of the genre. But the actor had other plans as turned from hero to villain with one perfect role.
Heath Ledger’s role as The Joker in The Dark Knight is infamous for the dedication the actor gave to the character and the apparent psychological effect it had on the actor. The role made Ledger a legend, but many consider it to be the reason he passed away from a drug overdose before the movie was even released. However, it wasn’t this gruelling role and iconic portrayal of the supervillain that humbled the actor.
It was his role as Harry Faversham in the 2002 war drama The Four Feathers that managed to first make the actor realise his “insignificance” in the grand scheme of things. Up until this point, Ledger had mostly starred in romantic dramas and comedies, which were usually shot in America or Australia.
The Four Feathers tells the story of a young British Officer who attempts to save his friends from the 1890s British war in Sudan after having quit his role and being given four white feathers of cowardice by his friends and fiancee.
The movie was mostly filmed on location in Sudan, with much of it taking place in the desert. Talking to the BBC, Ledger explained that “the environment was gruelling” and that he “I really enjoyed how humbling it was in the desert and how insignificant everything in life felt because I just felt like I could go in the sand out there.” But this didn’t stop the actor from embracing the difficulty.
Given our current knowledge of the actor’s dedication to his roles and his renowned passion for his job at the time, it’s no surprise that he found the “gruelling” experience to still be a positive one. He noted, “The environment was gruelling, but my character’s journey was gruelling anyhow, so in a sense, it made my job easier that my personal journey in telling the story was gruelling and rough.”
It seems that the tough working environment, paired with the difficult experiences of his character, allowed Ledger to commit even more easily to the character, treating the desert as a means of method acting.
Despite Ledger’s gruelling experience on the job and his dedication to the part, the film was critically panned, with the BBC journalist who interviewed Ledger even calling it “as unnecessary as it is uninteresting”. However, it did well enough at the box office and in many ways, this small blip in Ledger’s career can be seen as a stepping stone towards his career-defining and life-altering performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
