Rest in Peace Heath Ledger
So sad...the passing of Hollywood actor Heath Ledger. He was so young having died at the age of 28 only with reason still undertermined though largely speculated that it could be due to substance abuse because of the pills strewn all over him when his body was found.
I was just looking at the chinese newspaper when I was queueing up at cold storage and was wondering why the heck they put movie stills from Brokeback Mountain on the cover. And then as I was surfing on the net and going through a popular gossips site, I saw his name and the title didnt have a nice ring to it and indirectly implying something along the line of a not-so-good thing. I was like..oh..my gawd. Dont tell he died!
And unfortunately, that was the case. Heath Ledger was found dead on Tuesday 22nd January 2008 in his New York apartment. Now I dont exactly follow his work but I did watch Brokeback Mountain which I would say was his best performance. Okay if you're thinking that I watched it because I was curious of it being a gay movie, you're right. But I was a nervous wreck watching the movie as it was not something that was the norm. Then again, even if a heterosexual couple was kissing on screen, I would have cringed too..so no difference. I am not a lovey dovey person in the first place anyway.
Now Heath was a struggling actor hailing from Australia and he was one of those rare sorts that put his heart and soul into acting by taking up any acting jobs because of his love for acting. Plus, he knew that to survive in Hollywood and to secure a job in acting was very hard and very competitive. So it was all system go for him and would hardly think twice about its implications on his future career. To him, acting is acting. And when he took on a role, he practically 'lived' the character which led to a mindblowing performance with great intensity which many people could vouch for when they watched Brokeback Mountain. I guess after a string of movies that barely made him a star, when he got that major part in a controversial movie, I guess he saw it as an opportunity to push his boundary and make people stand up to his acting ability.
And he succeeded at it. I was like...whoa...you could practically go through a series of emotions like you could feel his character's feelings of loss, anger, confusion and happiness like one big giant roller coaster and would take awhile to shake off those feelings.
But I think everything has its limits and while his acting in the movie did have an impact on us, it did have an impact on him as well. He was so intense in his role that he found it unable to break out of it leading him to take matters in his own hand by taking on certain drugs to help ease his mental stress a bit but with little success. It didnt help that later on, he got a part as the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie which also required a great level of intensity because the Joker was a menacing and dark character and not just some villain who loved to 'clown' around.
It would have been his next breakout hit and though filming had wrapped up, it was speculated that the character had somehow affected him even more and his emotional status became worse than before. Now the toxicology report is not out yet and only a few weeks later that it will be revealed as whether he had died from an overdose. Meanwhile all else are mere speculations.
Well, my heart goes to you Heath Ledger. You have made a mark on Hollywood from an unknown actor to an actor whose credibility had been raised and who had shown the critics on what you were capable of.
Rest in peace.
I was just looking at the chinese newspaper when I was queueing up at cold storage and was wondering why the heck they put movie stills from Brokeback Mountain on the cover. And then as I was surfing on the net and going through a popular gossips site, I saw his name and the title didnt have a nice ring to it and indirectly implying something along the line of a not-so-good thing. I was like..oh..my gawd. Dont tell he died!
And unfortunately, that was the case. Heath Ledger was found dead on Tuesday 22nd January 2008 in his New York apartment. Now I dont exactly follow his work but I did watch Brokeback Mountain which I would say was his best performance. Okay if you're thinking that I watched it because I was curious of it being a gay movie, you're right. But I was a nervous wreck watching the movie as it was not something that was the norm. Then again, even if a heterosexual couple was kissing on screen, I would have cringed too..so no difference. I am not a lovey dovey person in the first place anyway.
Now Heath was a struggling actor hailing from Australia and he was one of those rare sorts that put his heart and soul into acting by taking up any acting jobs because of his love for acting. Plus, he knew that to survive in Hollywood and to secure a job in acting was very hard and very competitive. So it was all system go for him and would hardly think twice about its implications on his future career. To him, acting is acting. And when he took on a role, he practically 'lived' the character which led to a mindblowing performance with great intensity which many people could vouch for when they watched Brokeback Mountain. I guess after a string of movies that barely made him a star, when he got that major part in a controversial movie, I guess he saw it as an opportunity to push his boundary and make people stand up to his acting ability.
And he succeeded at it. I was like...whoa...you could practically go through a series of emotions like you could feel his character's feelings of loss, anger, confusion and happiness like one big giant roller coaster and would take awhile to shake off those feelings.
But I think everything has its limits and while his acting in the movie did have an impact on us, it did have an impact on him as well. He was so intense in his role that he found it unable to break out of it leading him to take matters in his own hand by taking on certain drugs to help ease his mental stress a bit but with little success. It didnt help that later on, he got a part as the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie which also required a great level of intensity because the Joker was a menacing and dark character and not just some villain who loved to 'clown' around.
It would have been his next breakout hit and though filming had wrapped up, it was speculated that the character had somehow affected him even more and his emotional status became worse than before. Now the toxicology report is not out yet and only a few weeks later that it will be revealed as whether he had died from an overdose. Meanwhile all else are mere speculations.
Well, my heart goes to you Heath Ledger. You have made a mark on Hollywood from an unknown actor to an actor whose credibility had been raised and who had shown the critics on what you were capable of.
Rest in peace.
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