Heath Ledger is a star who fans can not forget at any cost. Starting with teen heartthrob roles, he quickly shed that image to tackle challenging characters across genres. He had done many great roles but none come close to his iconic portrayal of The Joker in “The Dark Knight”.
It is, however, very unfortunate that Ledger wasn’t between us to see all the praise he got for his role, which resulted in a posthumous Academy Award. The Australian actor was just 28 at the time of his death and had his whole career ahead of him. He was already working on a movie at the time, and the director of that movie recently recalled his moments with Ledger.
Heath Ledger Passed Away With Stephen Gaghan’s Script In His Hands
Ledger was part of a fascinating project that never came to fruition due to a tragic turn of events. Director Stephen Gaghan and actor Heath Ledger were planning to collaborate on a film adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Ledger’s untimely passing in 2008 made it difficult for Gaghan to continue with any other actor.
Stephen Gaghan recently sat down with the author of the book, Malcolm Gladwell in Revisionist History Podcast. The two discussed details from the unfinished project. Gaghan also revealed that Ledger’s father called Gaghan after his death. This was because Gaghan’s phone number was on the script that Ledger had on his deathbed.
“They were there with the body, and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” “I think my number was on the script — like written. These guys are in, as you can imagine, they are in shock. And they dialed that number, and I don’t know why.”
“I literally just collapse. It’s never happened to me before or since. My feet went out from under me. I just literally sat down because I was like, ‘What? What?’ What they were going through I should not have been a party to in any way, really, and yet as a human and somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening. My wife was looking at me. I remember her face and I was just speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad.” – Stephen Gaghan on Revisionist History Podcast
The Blink movie was to be based on Gladwell’s book. The book talked about psychology and brain behavior, about the things that could happen within a moment of a blink. Watching Heath Ledger in such a movie would have been a treat for the fans. But alas, fate had other plans
Stephen Gaghan Discussed Details on Blink, The Movie He Was Working With Heath Ledger
During the interview, Gaghan also revealed some details from Blink, the script that Ledger had during his last days. Initially, the director had chosen Leonardo DiCaprio as the face of the movie but instead went on with Heath Ledger.
“This other thing had happened off camera, which is that I met Heath Ledger and I’d gotten to be very, very close with him instantly,” “I just had a real connection with him that was kind of unusual and really special to me. I got really excited, and I started seeing him as the main character. Once I started seeing that I couldn’t unsee it.”
However, due to his untimely death, Gaghan felt it was better to drop the plan altogether than to work with anyone else. “For me, I just had to put a pin in it.” said Gaghan on the interview.
