Michelle Break-Up Made Heath "Snap"Article from: The Sunday Telegraph
By Claire Harvey
July 05, 2009 http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25734036-5001026,00.htmlHEATH Ledger's ugly split with partner Michelle Williams made the actor "snap" in the last weeks of his life, according to American magazine Vanity Fair.
Insomnia and prescription medication turned Ledger to despair before his death in January, 2008, friends and colleagues have told the magazine in a profile that reveals the true depth of Ledger's unhappiness.
The custody battle over daughter Matilda, born in 2005, left Ledger edgy, depressed and unable to sleep to the point where he "snapped", according to Terry Gilliam, who directed Ledger's last film, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.
The magazine also reveals Ledger's insecurity, even suggesting he wanted to be kicked off the set of the Batman film The Dark Knight, deliberately overacting to provoke director Christopher Nolan.
Distress over the break-up and fears about his talent led him to avoid working, and he had told friends one of the reasons he agreed to star in the Batman film The Dark Knight was "that it would be such a long shoot it would give him an excuse to turn down other offers".
"The first thing he would do was pass on almost everything that came to him," said his friend and agent Steve Alexander.
"Or he would commit to things and then walk away from them. As much as he wanted to work, there was a part of him that was always looking for a reason not to work.
"He was always afraid, insecure about could he nail it. Then finally he would come around and embrace the challenge."
Nicola Pecorini, the cinematographer on Doctor Parnassus, said Ledger told him he deliberately went over the top with the Joker character in The Dark Knight.
"According to Pecorini, Ledger hoped his performance would be so far out he'd be fired, and thus become the beneficiary of a lengthy, paid vacation," Vanity Fair says. It was exactly that over-the-top performance that won Ledger a best-actor Oscar, awarded after his death.
Ledger was reluctant to be involved in the Batman franchise, according to Steve Alexander.
"He was always hesitant to be in a summer blockbuster, with the dolls and action figures and everything else that comes with one of those movies," Alexander says.
The story says the Doctor Parnassus film, to be released in Europe in September and Australia on October 29, will give fresh insights into Ledger's development as an actor.
It has "the added advantage of showing (Ledger) reloaded or, better, unplugged. This final performance, while not the tour de force of weirdness that was the Joker, is good enough - more than good enough - to remind us that Ledger's death has deprived the movies of one of their most accomplished, and promising, talents."
Ledger's character in the film is a conman known as Tony Liar, whose name, Gilliam says, is a reference to former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Until now, little has been known about Ledger's split with Williams, with family members portraying it as amicable. Williams is now in a relationship with director Spike Jonze.
Gilliam reveals that Ledger and Williams fell out of love after the release of the film on which they met, Brokeback Mountain.
Their relationship began to mirror the dysfunctional marriage they portrayed on screen, with Ledger leaving Williams lonely and isolated while he spent time with his own friends.
Ledger came under increasing pressure to woo Oscar votes and discovered that Williams cared more about the accolades than he did, Gilliam said.
"That was the moment when it changed, when he realised, uh-oh, we perceive the world differently," Gilliam told Vanity Fair.
"He didn't care about things like those awards. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted . . . But once it started going south it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding."
According to Gilliam, Ledger eventually said: "Just f*** all of you! I'm not giving Michelle anything."
The custody dispute with Williams had one positive effect on Ledger, however: he gave up alcohol and the marijuana he had previously smoked regularly.
"With his chronic insomnia, Ledger would typically spend night after night awake, diverting himself with time-killers like rearranging the furniture in whatever space he happened to be living," Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind said.
Run-down and exhausted, Ledger turned to prescription drugs, massages and the Alexander Technique, a combination of posture and relaxation therapy.
His instructor, Gerry Grennell, told the magazine he had urged Ledger to give up the medications. "He agreed" in the last days of his life, Grennell said.
"It is very difficult for me to imagine how close he came to not taking them."
A masseuse found Ledger's body in his New York loft. An autopsy revealed drugs including Valium, Xanax, OxyContin, Vicodin and Restoril in his body.
