“Way too fucking dangerous”: the scenes Heath Ledger wisely refused to shoot
The late great Heath Ledger was wise beyond his years.
Although he sadly died at the moment when he seemed like the most exciting actor of his generation, one of the primary reasons that he was often compared to a young James Dean, he gave several performances that deeply resonated.
10 Things I Hate About You was heralded as an instant classic within the high school comedy genre, The Patriot gave him a few unforgettable scenes with fellow Australian actor Mel Gibson, Monster’s Ball featured one of his most heartbreaking performances ever, Brokeback Mountain was a cultural phenomenon that made legitimate changes in the industry, and The Dark Knight is one of the most influential films of the 21st century, and became a guiding light to many young actors who followed in Ledger’s footsteps.
Even The Brothers Grimm, which wasn’t initially a hit, has been reprised as a cult classic, as Matt Damon had only positive things to say about his experience working with Ledger. It’s perhaps because it came in the middle of this legendary run that A Knight’s Tale tends to get left off of any recap of Ledger’s greatest performances.
However, the 2001 medieval adventure film deserves to be remembered fondly, as it was quite clever in how it modernised a classical genre. Ledger starred as a peasant squire who pretends to be a knight in order to win the favour of his love interest, played by Shannyn Sossamon, and begins competing in tournaments by jousting.
While it took a modern spin on the dialogue and humour, even including contemporary music like Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, A Knight’s Tale took its commitment to recapturing medieval combat seriously. Ledger said that he made the wise choice to not do all of his own fighting onscreen, as the scenes set in the jousting tournament could be legitimately dangerous.
“I would do it, and we did as much of it as we could, but I’m really not willing to ride a horse towards another rider at full speed and hit them with a stick, or get hit myself,” he recalled. “It was just way too fucking dangerous. Stunt guys were getting injured badly. One guy had his jaw ripped back and had 15 stitches and was back on the horse two weeks later, and it happened again. They were really hitting each other. Unbelievable!”
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Young actors are often warned against participating in any scene where they could face a critical injury, as it could seriously harm their careers, such as Tobey Maguire, who famously injured his back and nearly didn’t reprise his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2, or Brendan Fraser, who faced significant injuries while shooting The Mummy films that gave him notable health problems down the road.
Although Ledger was able to perform a respectable amount of stunts for the film, his performance wasn’t just successful because of his physicality, even if he did look great wielding a sword, but because it was a classical aspirational hero’s journey, in which a character not of noble birth is able to achieve greatness through chivalry, effort, and true love. The sincerity he brought made A Knight’s Tale a far more moving, exciting, and charming adventure than it would have been without him.
