When the news broke in 2008 that Heath Ledger had died, it left the entire entertainment world thunderstruck. At the age of 28, Ledger was still really only just at the start of his professional acting career, but he had quickly made a name for himself as a captivating performer and was on the verge of superstar status. Even though that was almost 20 years ago, it’s still shocking for fans to reckon with, and it’s even harder for those who were closer to and worked with him.
Paul Bettany is one of those people, having co-starred with Ledger in the 2001 period film A Knight’s Tale, and he reflected on his relationship with the actor in a 25th anniversary piece about the film published by The Guardian. The two actors worked extensively together in the making of the movie, Ledger as aspiring jousting champion William Thatcher and Bettany as his hype man Geoffrey Chaucer, and the latter can still recall the special energy that the Australian star possessed (even though he can’t actually rewatch the movie):
So much has been said about Heath and darkness, but the moment you saw him, he just radiated light, happiness and joy. He was a ball of creativity and charisma, so very alive that even today it’s difficult to imagine him dead. I often find myself wondering what beautiful things he would have made.
Despite not even being in his 30s yet at the time he died, Heath Ledger had built a special career for himself including a number of memorable performances. He became a favorite among young audiences thanks to both A Knight’s Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You, but those movies came just a few years before he earned his first Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain. He posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009 for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and like Bettany, many have wondered about where his incredible potential could have taken him in his career as an artist.
The “darkness” in Ledger’s reputation that Paul Bettany references stems from how the actor died – an accidental overdose of prescription drugs – but the man that Bettany remembers is one brimming with energy and confidence, which he illustrated beautifully with an anecdote:
Heath got a tattoo mid-shoot. It was a tiny circle with a circle around it and then a bigger circle around that, like a target. He said: ‘That’s me in the middle. That circle is the Earth, and the other circle is the universe.’ I said: ‘You’ve put yourself right in the middle? I’ve never been that confident!’ But he was that confident in the most joyful, winning way.
That confidence is certainly apparent in his turn in A Knight’s Tale, which got mixed reviews and wasn’t a massive box office hit when it was released but has developed a cult audience among nostalgic millennials (who love it as a romantic comedy and the great cast including Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewll and Shannyn Sossamon, in addition to Heath Ledger and Paul Bettany). If you’ve never seen it, it’s a charming movie worth hunting down: it’s not currently available on any major subscription streaming service, but it is available widely for digital purchase and/or rental, and physical media collectors can easily find it on Blu-ray.