Welcome to our collection of quotes by Heath Ledger. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to further develop his film career. His work consisted of twenty films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), the latter two being posthumous releases. He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.
For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the Best International Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute; he was the first actor to win the latter award posthumously. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the eighth-youngest nominee in the category at that time. Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There, which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.
Ledger died on 22 January 2008 as a result of an accidental overdose of medications. A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. At the time of his death, The Dark Knight was in post-production, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was in the midst of filming, in which he was playing his last role as Tony. His death affected the subsequent promotion of The Dark Knight. His performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight earned him universal acclaim and popularity from fans and critics alike. Ledger also received numerous posthumous awards for his work on The Dark Knight, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
I only do this because I'm having fun.
The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away.
Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.
I don't know, as long as I get to evolve and grow as an actor and as a person, that's the stuff I'm after.
It's a little uncomfortable doing love scenes in armor, but, you know, when the heat's on, the heat's on.
It's rare that there's a role that requires an Australian accent.
I have a lot of great distractions outside of acting.
I wasn't going to have fun doing a teen movie again.
In order not to hold a frame with someone, you have to be intimidated by them.
I'm born to be a father. And I've been looking forward to this all my life.
From 18 to 22, I was alone, living in L.A. with a bunch of friends, partying.
But the paparazzi are quite malicious and vocal and really rude, ... And they camped outside of my house, so I started throwing eggs at them, lobbing them at rocks next to them.
I am not a public speaker and never will be.
The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.
Longer Version:
The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules!
I do think that drugs and alcohol have been glorified and exoticized in such a way that it gets into the art world.
My mom and my dad never pushed me into performing. They never prohibited me from trying anything, or being anything. They never restricted me in any way. For which I'll be forever grateful.
I'm shy. People get confused. They think as an actor you can get up and be confident on the screen. Why aren't you like this in normal life? Why can't you act in your social life? 'Because I can't!'
I'm sure drugs and alcohol perhaps would inspire new thoughts, but it's certainly not something that I use as a tool or a mechanism to create.
You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess.
I like to see films that come out with lower budgets because you're forced into using your imagination. You don't have everything at your fingertips. You have to create it from scratch.
In the birthing process, you come out just realizing how stupid and weak men are! I mean, I might as well not have been in there, we're useless!
I'm not a big fan of western movies and I really don't like cowboy-indian movies. I have never watched them.
I've never had high expectations of my work and I certainly am not going to let that plague my thoughts. I'm just going to continue to choose what feels right for me at the time and go with it.
There's nothing like working with your mates -- it's the way it should be, as far as I'm concerned.
Let's put a smile on that face!
In a way, I was spoon-fed, if you will, a career. It was fully manufactured by a studio that believed that they could put me on their posters and turn me into their bottle of Coca-Cola, their product.
Had I listened to my agent, I'd be running around in tights, climbing buildings and stuff.
It's like anything in life, visualizing the old man you're going to become: As long as you have a clear picture of that -- the life you want to lead -- eventually you'll probably get there.
I believe that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you... stranger.
When I'm not acting, I do like to take a year off at a time, at least if I can, just in order to keep acting exciting -- otherwise I get bored very quickly.
Growing up in Australia, you never feel like you're going to live beyond that place. You wake up and you go to the beach, and you do your homework. You're just a kid.
I do keep pre-occupied.
I feel like I've never been in a film that people have liked before.
My life is together, both professionally and socially.
I thought, I need to be more cautious about my choices -- it reflects on who I am.
When I first started acting, I was just crap.
I think your personal evolution runs hand in hand with your professional evolution. Performance and the person you are kind of grow simultaneously.
People generally express more in between their sentences when they're not speaking. Words are usually there to disguise who someone is or what they're feeling.
There is no Yoda-there's no one who points you in the right direction. You've got to figure that out by yourself.
I believe acting truly is harnessing the power of belief.
If you spend all day on horseback, and you hop off, you walk around like you still have a horse between your legs. And it affects your shoulders. They fall.
My nervous energy is usually the easiest form of energy to tap into.
Some people just wanna see the world burn.
A little fight in you. I like that.
I think the most common cause of insomnia is simple; its loneliness.
See I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve.
Never give up on what makes you smile.
Do I really look like a guy with a plan?
Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos, I'm an agent of chaos, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.
The Australian sense of humor is very dry, sarcastic, and very undercover. Like if I tell any jokes in America, people just think I'm serious! So I just quit telling any jokes whatsoever.
May I ask your name, my lady? Or perhaps angels have no names, only beautiful faces.
In my opinion, New York City police officers are brave.
I'm just not one of those naturally funny, relaxed actors who enjoy the spotlight and are so good at it.
I'm kind of addicted to moving.
You know, I'm not in a hurry, and everybody else in Hollywood -- particularly agents and managers -- they're all in a hurry.
I don't feel like I have anything to lose, so I don't really understand what I'm putting at risk.
I never took an acting class, so I've made all my mistakes on film.
I like to set up obstacles and defeat them.
I've never figured out who 'Heath Ledger' is on film: 'This is what you expect when you hire me, and it will be recognizable.'
It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself.
I apologize for my terrible interview skills.
Longer Version:
I apologize for my terrible interview skills. I wasn't prepared to expose stories about something so special and wonderfully private that is happening in my life. I guess a part of me wishes that I'd never have to and that maybe I could protect this special time. I was dreaming.
I never want to feel like I've achieved my goal. It's like Chinese farmers. They never admit that it's a good season. They feel like they'll be punished.
If you're just safe about the choices you make, you don't grow.
I'm still a kid. I'm like six years old. But it's just a matter of wanting to get up, it's just a big journey. I felt like when I left home that I was on a journey, and I still am.
It's odd, that's why I don't like telling people I played field hockey. It's real big in Australia for guys. But I say I played in America, and everybody goes, 'Oh, you girl!'
I generally don't think most situations can be labeled as black or white.
I feel like I'm wasting time if I repeat myself.
I like to do something I fear.
If you are just safe about the choices you make, you don't grow.
If you make decisions based upon people's reactions or judgments then you make really boring choices.
I don't have that much forward planning about what I want to do next, or in the future.
I'm in control of my life, not anyone in Hollywood.
Anyone that has a job that takes them away from home, I think, can understand the difficulties in maintaining consistency, not only with your family and those you love but with your friends.
The reason that you dance and sing is to make the audience feel like they're dancing and singing. As long as you're having fun with it and giving it 100 percent, they're gonna feel that.
I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away.