Author Topic: Heath Ledger in his own Words  (Read 184687 times)

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #170 on: February 12, 2008, 01:14:07 am »
Late Night With Conan O'Brien
Brothers Grimm Interview

 
Friday, 19 August 2005 
 
Transcribed from VHS by HeathHEATHENS.com
 
Conan O'Brien:  My first guest has starred in such films as Monster’s Ball & The Patriot. His new movie, The Brothers Grimm, opens August 26th. Please welcome Heath Ledger.

Heath bounds out from backstage, wearing his dark pin-striped suit jacket, button with the middle button, over a white t-shirt. He has on the lapel pin ribbon that he wore to the Brothers Grimm premiere, and rust/red leather (my guess is hand-sewn) lace-up boots. He’s full of exuberance and energy.
 
Conan:  Thanks for comin’.
 
Heath:   Thanks for havin’ me.
 
C:   Ya gotta little bit of Conan energy there!
 
H:   Yeah! Rawr! I was watching you before, and I’m a little keyed up.
 
C:   Apparently you’ve had a lot of sugar, yeah!
 
H:    I have.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
C:    No, Thanks for comin’; first of all . . . uh, those are cool!
       (points to Heath’s new boots.)
                                                                                           
H:    Yeah, they’re all right, huh?
 
C:    Look at that!
 
H:    I got a-attacked by a cat on the way here. They weren’t supposed
        to be red. . .
 
C:   Yeah, that would frighten any animal, yeah . . . that’s cool, though.
       Now, I wanna ask you something first of all, you are originally
       from Australia, but I don’t know where in Australia . . .
 
H:    Ah, Perth, Western Australia
 
C:    Perth. Never been to Perth, but . . . absolutely beautiful place Australia.
 
H:    It is; It is beautiful, yeah.
 
C:   Fantastic, but now you live in Brooklyn.
 
H:   Yup. (audience cheers and Heath gives the thumbs up)
 
C:   And I was thinking, like, . . .   Uh-oh, they’re gonna be waiting for me when I leave (referring to audience) "What’dya sayin  bout  Brooklyn".   
       No, Brooklyn’s great, but I can’t imagine a place that would be more opposite
 
H:    Yeah
 
C:    than Australia, right? I mean it’s just gotta be completely different.
 
H:    It is, and that’s kinda what I love about it at this point. I was after some . . . a change, you know? Um . . . It’s just so quiet;  it’s real living,   ya know, and I’m lugging my laundry down to the laundrymat, uh, you know my duties right now are just keeping the house clean, my  girlfriend happy, . . . um . . .
 
C:   Right, . . . I love that you just say, like yah, I had to get outa Australia so I could lug some laundry around, ya know?
Transcribed by HeathHEATHENS.com
H:    (Laughs - Audience laughs) That’s good.
 
C:    But but you also, ya get hounded a bit in Australia, you’re . . . you know, a big star anywhere, but in Australia the paparazzi kinda  gives  you a hard time?
 
H:    Yeah, I guess so; I mean . . . look, (pfeww) they’re bored, I think.   You know.   They don’t get many people going down to  Australia,   and  so it’s uh . . . you know.
 
C:    They’ve got all the photos of Crocodile Dundee they would ever want . . .
 
H:    ( laughs)
 
C:    They’re like, "We’ve gotta get Heath now."
 
H:    Yeah
 
C:    So you come to Brooklyn, and the paparazzi, they don’t really want to go into Brooklyn to badly, right?
 
H:    Nah, couldn’t care less; it’s great,
 
Audience member: Yeah.
 
H:    Yeh.
 
C:    (to audience member) You settle down, sir, or I’ll come up there.   We’ll let Mr. T take care of that guy.
 
(Heath Laughs)
 
C:    But uh . . . so you’re having a good time, and I know that, sometimes in Australia when you’ve had a hard time with the  paparazzi, um .  . . and it’s common among stars, they tend to lose it, once in a while . . .
 
H:     (under his breath) slap’em around?
 
C:    You’ve actually thrown, you throw stuff at them?
 
H:    (Pause) Yeh . . . (uncomfortable giggle)
 
(Audience laughs at Heath’s fidgeting)

C:    I think people are behind you on that; I don’t think anyone’s complaining, but what do you throw?
 
H:    I’ve thrown an egg . . . or two, yeh . . . not at them just kinda next to them, so it splatters up against them. . . (uncomfortable laugh)
 
C:    You’ve put a lotta thought into it . . .
 
H:    But that’s how pathetic it is; like that’s what we were reduced to, you know, like ya can’t . . . ya can’t actually stand up and slap them; I  mean, when they kinda spy in on you, and ya trying to like bathe out in the sun, and ya, you're with ya girlfriend and your friends & your family, and they’re spying in on you, it actually feels like you're getting a slap across the face . . .
 
C:    Right, right.
 
H:    And we can’t physically stand up and hit them back, of course . . . it’d be rude, and  against the law (heh), um . . . so you  just, you  get an egg an . . . (makes lobbing motion)
 
C:    That’s a good idea. Do you carry eggs with you?  Do you have an egg dispenser . . .
 
H:    Yeh . . . (laughs)
 
C:     . . . strapped to your chest at all times.
 
H:     (makes gunslinging sounds as he whips imaginary eggs from holsters and lobs them at imaginary paparazzi)
 
C:     Very nice. That’s a cool sound, by the way.
 
H:     Thanks a lot; I got more . . .
 
C:     This guy provides his own sound effects.
 
H:     sound effects (laughs)
 
C:     Now, um, correct me if I’m wrong; I’m an idiot, but Australia now is having, . . . we’re in the summer, but it’s the winter for Australia, is that right?
 
H:      Yeh
 
C :    Does that mean like, snow and people cooking at the chimney and uh . . . what does it mean when it’s winter in Australia.
 
H:     Umm. . . what does it mean? Uh . . .
 
C:     I mean, does it get really cold, are the kangaroos wearing mittens ? . . .
 
H:     Not really. I mean, it was quite confusing growing up, I mean . . . for example, I mean . . . Christmas time in Australia, I  grew up . .  . uh  you know . . . around the bar-b-que, kinda cooking sausages n steaks, in 40 degree heat, sweating, in  flip-flops and shorts, and  singlets, singing (Heath sings) Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, o’er the fields we go . . .
 
C:     Yeah right, it’s not the same experience that you’ve seen . . . yeah . . . you’re getting a sunburn, and ah, it sounds kinda cool, though. .  . It sounds like it’d be a good time.
 
H:      It is; it’s beautiful, yeah.
 
C:     Now I wanna ask you, one of the things that’s famous in Australia is there’s an aboriginal instrument . . .
Transcribed by HeathHEATHENS.com
H:     Mmm-hmmm
 
C:     that’s well-known, which is called the didgeri. . .
 
H:     Didgeridoo
 
C :    Didgeridoo
 
H:     Yeh . . .
 
C:     and I’ve seen it in certain movies, and I’m sure everyone here has heard it.   It’s that kinda (makes didgeridoo sounds  with  hands and lips)
 
H:     Yeah, that’s really good . . .
 
C:      I’m not done . . .
 
Heath & audience laughs
 
C:     Sorry. Uh . . . But ah, it’s such a cool instrument, and it turns out, I’ve heard that you play the didgeridoo.
 
H:     I can play the didgeridoo, yeh . . .
 
C:     Really?
 
H:     Real . . . yeah.
 
C:     Cuz we happen to have a didgeridoo right here . . . (reaches behind chair)
 
H:     (laughs uncomfortably and wipes his forehead)
 
C:     You know what’s amazing?  I’ve had this didgeridoo back here for 12 years . . .
 
H:     Hah! . . .
 
C:    And I’m always like . . . "Al Roker?" And he’s like, "No!" (shakes head no)   Desperate Housewives? No . . . But if you could give us a demonstration, is that all right?
 
H:     O.k., sure . . .
 
C:    Am I even holding this right? I don’t know which is the right end . . .
 
H:    (Heath takes didge) Do you know how they, they, make these, they find these . . . the aboriginals will walk through the uh . . . in the outback, and they walk up to trees, n this (running hand down the didge) is like the trunk of a tree, and they tap it like this.
        (Makes tapping sound on didge).
        And they listen to it . . . and listen to the sound, whether or not it’s hollow; it’s actually termites that kinda bite their way through, and clear it out . . .
 
C:    So they find a piece of wood that’s been hollowed out already by a termite?
 
H:    That’s right. Then they cut the tree down and turn it into this.
        All right . . . (stretches & shifts into playing position)
 
C:    All right, let’s give it a shot. And are the termites out by now? Do you have to . . . ?
 
H:    Yeh. . . no.
 
C:    O.k.
 
H:    So ya gotta be really really quiet . . .
 
C:    K, here we go.
     
( Heath gives a quick blow,  as a joke,  the way he did on Ellen in 2004.  Audience laughs.)
 
H:    Thank you very much!
       (Heath now really plays several seconds on the didge, this time adding an  interesting thumping sound to his repertoire at the end.. )
 
Audience applauds and Heath smiles.
 
C:     That is cool, actually! That’s a cool sound!
 
H:     (handing didge back to Conan) Put it back there for another 20  years . . . (laughing)
 
C:     That’s a cool sound.
 
H:     D’ya wanna give it a shot?
 
C:     How would I?  What d’ya do ta do it?  I don’t even know.
 
H:     Give it a go.
 
(Conan makes the same screeching sounds that Ellen did. Be glad you can’t hear it! LOL)
(Yells into didge mouth) "This isn’t working for me!"
 
Heath laughs.
 
C:     I think I just threw up into it. I’m sorry. I got tense, it has something to do with the lips, though, probably.
 
H:     That was good. That was pretty close, yeah.
 
C:     It’s a very eerie, sort of ominous sound . . .
 
H:     Yeh . . . It’s hypnotic almost, isn’t it?  Trancelike.
 
C:     Yeah, yeah . . . I will do your bidding now.
 
(Heath laughs)
 
C:     Can you solo on it?    You ever bang out, . . . can you do like a Hendrix solo?
 
H:     Oh, I’d love to; I’d love to. . . I should’ve at least an album or something like that. (Laughs)
 
C:     Alright, I thank you very much for doing that, we . . . let’s talk about The Brothers Grimm.
 
H:     Yeah.
 
C:     Ahhh. . . actual . . . we’ve all heard of the brothers Grimm. These are actual people from the 19th century that I guess,. . .   uh . . .  well, you tell it. You’ll tell it better than I will.
 
H:     Sure, well, the actual people were, ya know, um. . . highly respected scholars. You know, in Germany, and they collected  folk lores, folk tales, and ya know . . .um. . . actually, in actual fact, Jacob, my character, went on to become a politician.
         Uhh . . . they wrote half the German dictionary, la-dadada-da . . . (that’s Heath’s version of Yada yada yada.  LOL) . . .  then there’s our film . . .  and uh, . . . our film’s, I dunno if you’ve seen it or not, but it’s a Terry Gilliam version of this, so  it’s a fairy tale. Um . . . and uh . . . it’s a beautiful film. It’s uh. . . very eccentric; Terry Gilliam’s one of my favorite directors;  he’s done incredible films, going back to  like, Monty Python era and stuff . . . I adore him.
        And so basically, in this film, Matt Damon is my brother, and the two of us kinda go from town to town bilking these villagers for  their kinda hard-earned . . . um dollar. Um . . .and we set up these little scams where we pretend to vanquish their towns of these kinda mill-witches, and uh you know, bridge trolls, when in actual fact, we’re setting em up . . . setting up little scenarios with  actors . . .
 
C:    You’re scamming them a little bit.
 
H:    Scamming them, that’s right. And then we encounter a real enchanted forest, and that’s the story . . .
 
C:    It’s sorta the uh . . . historical meets. . . sort of the fantasy element here. . .
 
H:    Yeah, that’s right.
 
C:    We have a clip here. Is there anything we need to know specifically for this?
 
H:    Uh, no. Go for it.
 
C:    Oh, alright. (Everyone laughs) How refreshing. Let’s take a look at this clip from The Brothers Grimm . . .

Clip shows . . . (It’s the "he’s my daughter" . . . "and a fine wife he’ll make some man, someday" . . . clip)  Audience applauds . . .
 
C:     The Brothers Grimm opens August 26th. Hey Heath, thanks so much for comin’ by, yeah.
(Shakes Heath’s hand.)
 
H:    Thanks so much for having me, yeah.

« Last Edit: February 18, 2008, 05:04:19 pm by TOoP/Bruce »
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline LuvJackNasty

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #171 on: February 16, 2008, 12:45:23 am »
Hi. I've been registered for quite a while but never posted- I hang out over at EJ. I'm making my own little tribute book for Heath and am including this and I don't feel right "taking" without saying thanks. Thanks for putting this together here- it brought smiles and of course, the tears. Thanks again~Michelle.

mvansand76

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #172 on: February 18, 2008, 01:33:25 pm »
Hi. I've been registered for quite a while but never posted- I hang out over at EJ. I'm making my own little tribute book for Heath and am including this and I don't feel right "taking" without saying thanks. Thanks for putting this together here- it brought smiles and of course, the tears. Thanks again~Michelle.

Hey Michelle, nice of you to stop by! Will you show us all the end result here on bettermost?

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #173 on: February 18, 2008, 04:43:31 pm »
Here is a Heath quote I really like.  It was taken from Kevin Sessums: Remembering Heath Ledger at http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/blogs/daily/2008/01/kevin-sessums-r.html.  Heath and Kevin were sitting outside near the Vltava River in Prague.

Kevin Sessums wrote Vanity Fair's August 2000 cover story about Heath Ledger.


“I look up at those stars and go, ‘There’s no explanation for us to be here.’ When anything is blocking my head or there’s worry in my life, I just—whoosh—go sit on Mars or something and look back here at Earth. All you can see is this tiny speck. You don’t see the fear. You don’t see the pain. You don’t see the movie industry. You don’t see this interview. You don’t see thought. It’s just one solid speck. Then nothing really matters. It just doesn’t.”



Welcome to Bettermost, Susiebk!

That's a beautiful quote!  Thank-you for providing it!

Bruce


Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #174 on: February 18, 2008, 06:19:37 pm »
“My dad loves being a father. He has to be a father, which I love and hate. I guess it started when I left home, but our relationship went from being in each other’s face to being best friends. I guess that comes from understanding him as an adult now that I’m an adult. It’s amazing when you come to accept each other’s mistakes and let each other make them.”
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #175 on: February 18, 2008, 06:37:50 pm »
On being compared to other Australian actors, Chud.com, April 25, 2001:

"It is a media thing. When people ask that, you're forced to make things up to please them. I have no answers to that. It's all constructed by the media."
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #176 on: February 18, 2008, 06:42:39 pm »
Heath at the premiere of 'A Knight's Tale" in Westwood.

"I'd rather be at the Lakers game. It's playoff time, but a guy's got responsibilities."
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #177 on: February 18, 2008, 06:59:07 pm »
“I don’t have a method to my madness.… For me, acting is more about self-exploration. I’ve learned a lot about myself in order to learn about the craft. How many kings can you find to play a king? You can’t find them. When I act, I look at it as if I’m a mixing board in a sound studio. The pattern on the board is me. When I play a character, I go, ‘I’ll turn these knobs down and these ones up.’ But in order to do that I have to know myself. I have to know myself like an instrument. I’m just a saxophone,”
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Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #178 on: February 18, 2008, 07:03:55 pm »
“I’ve always been very big on self-exploration and answering my own questions. For so many, it’s hell growing up. But I guess I’m blessed. I’ve really enjoyed it. I don’t let a lot get to me. I really don’t. As I keep saying, I break everything down. Everything."
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Heath Ledger in his own Words
« Reply #179 on: February 18, 2008, 07:11:00 pm »
“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!’ ”
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40