The movie that convinced Heath Ledger to destroy his career “in order to rebuild it”
Heath Ledger made the best of a responsibility that was forced on him.
The late great actor is now remembered for his undeniable grace, who had the transformative power to become powerful characters; whether it was a heartbroken cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, a ruthless villain in The Dark Knight, a confused young police officer in Monster’s Ball, or a brave American hero in The Patriot, he is associated with parts of immense power.
All this makes it a bit easy to forget that before he was celebrated as the definitive actor of his generation, Ledger was also a heartthrob with significant commercial appeal. It wasn’t long after his winning, charismatic performance in the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You that Ledger was drafted for his first lead role in the medieval adventure film A Knight’s Tale. At the time, he said that the decision to star in the film was not one that he made.
“I had not really chosen my career path,” he admitted, “It had been chosen for me. I didn’t audition for A Knight’s Tale. I was given it, and then the studio put my face on a poster and wrote ‘He Will Rock You’, and if I didn’t, my career would have been over.”
Given the other choices that Ledger made with the more unusual roles he selected, it’s more than likely that A Knight’s Tale would not have been his first pick of projects; however, he said that the experience of making the film gave him valuable experiences that ended up shaping the rest of his career.
“That was the first lead I’d had in anything, and there were all these new pressures, which freaked me out,” he claimed, “I felt like my career was out of my hands. I wasn’t making any decisions; they were being made for me, and so to a certain degree”.
“I had to go out and destroy my career somewhat in order to rebuild it.”
Heath Ledger
Despite the fact that medieval films have a nasty track record at the box office, A Knight’s Tale proved to be everything that the genre wasn’t; it was sincere, romantic, fun, and even felt modern thanks to some of the contemporary needle drops, including the Queen song that Ledger references. Although the script did have some silly moments, it wouldn’t have worked without his winning performance, which helped him graduate to a new class of stardom.
Even though the film is remembered even more fondly in recent years as a cult classic, it didn’t represent Ledger’s interests, which is why he did his best to sabotage any attempts for him to be made into a more conventional leading man. By appearing in the dark neo-western Ned Kelly and the gripping addiction drama Candy, he proved himself capable of taking on more grounded material, which only helped him receive more serious opportunities.
Although the actor may have at the time dismissed A Knight’s Tale as being more populist, he was also someone capable of getting audiences to take a chance on challenging material. Brokeback Mountain wasn’t just a major awards contender, but a surprisingly big hit; at the time of its release, and The Dark Knight was the fourth highest-grossing film of all time. There’s a difference between being a great actor and being a movie star, but Ledger is the rare person who could be described both ways.
