Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum
Jake
el_wing:
I'm glad Jake doesn't have to deal with the media. He doesn't have to share his pain with the world.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on January 26, 2008, 01:51:07 pm ---I'm wondering though, in regards both quotes above - for eventual talkshow appearances and more organized types of interviews, if Jake continues to lie low for a while - can't he make it a condition (if he so chooses) that they not ask about Heath?
--- End quote ---
I don't know. I know my favorite interviewers respect sensitive topics. But, on the other hand, Jake is very much a professional who knows how the industry works. And BBM was Jake's breakthrough role, just as it was Heath's. So it would probably be unwise for Jake to make it off-limits. (Personal feelings about Heath's... I won't say it... are another matter, but from now on, BBM will be linked to tragedy in real life as well. It's a movie about tragedy and loss, at least in part, and now even more so.)
Dammit. Heath should be spending another fifty years, at least, talking to interviewers about his newest brilliant role. :'(
LauraGigs:
--- Quote from: Mikaela ---Perhaps the knowledge that people may subconsciously be looking to him for some kind of closure, some profound statement to - somehow - make some sense of this, or convey some confort, or pay a tribute that becomes the one tribute that remains for the ages - may make it even more difficult for him to handle his own grief.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. How would any of us deal if the world press were waiting on us for a "How-do-you-feel" statement on Heath's passing? Requiring a perfect distillation of all our emotions into a "workable soundbyte" form, as well as being some kind of perfect emotional balm for millions of grieving strangers?
We may assume that Jake, being an actor, would be better at this than we. But it's just so unfair to him.
(I do agree that loving tributes from people – when they're ready – are lovely and healing. Daniel Day-Lewis' statement was apparently that for a lot of people.)
opinionista:
Somehow I think Jake might go to Perth. Heath was his friend and he's Matilda's godfather. Of course he is going, and the press need not to find out. He can rent a private plane to fly to Australia from wherever he is. He's got the money for that. Given the fact that funeral arrangements are a secret we may not hear about it but I'm pretty sure he will be there. Jake, his family and a bunch of other people.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on January 26, 2008, 01:51:07 pm --- I'm pretty sure other stars of his caliber have made similar "topic non grata" demands in order to appear. (Hugh Grant comes to mind, for entirely different reasons).
--- End quote ---
What comes to mind about Hugh Grant for me was when he appeared on Leno's show just after he was arrested for hiring a prostitute. He's introduced, comes onto the set, applause applause, sits down in the chair, and Leno turns to him and goes, "What were you thinking?!!" So apparently Hugh hadn't stipulated that particular subject off limits in that case.
I'm going entirely from memory, so I may have some of the details wrong.
Anyway, as you say Mika, Jake's situation is entirely different. I think celebrities often do ask that certain subjects be off limits -- their love lives or pending divorces, for example -- but those are usually topics demanding a different sort of privacy. The specifics of Jake's friendship with Heath are private, of course, but I don't think it's too intrusive to expect that he might want to say something about his friend's passing.
The media absolutely shouldn't harass him in his private life for a comment, or on his way into the funeral, or anything like that. But if he's on a talk show or a press junket I don't think it's out of line for the interviewer to bring the subject up, and I think it would be kind of odd if Jake would refuse to answer. All he'd have to say, at minimum, is something about how sad he is, how much he respected Heath, etc. And Jake seems so comfortable and relaxed in the limelight that I don't think he'd have any trouble with that.
My favorite interviewers respect sensitive topics, too. But good interviewers have to make at least a stab (so to speak) at bringing them up. I once had to interview an author who had endured an extremely painful, shocking and highly publicized family tragedy/scandal a few years earlier. I knew I had to ask her about it, and had dreaded it. She refused to answer my questions, as I'd expected, and so I dropped it. But we both knew the drill, that I had to ask, and she didn't hold it against me, as far as I could tell.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version