Much of the footage in the new documentary I Am Heath Ledger was shot by the late actor himself. Ledger captures his own beaming grin — at times playfully manic, but always beautiful — while talking goofily into a handheld camcorder. “Heath was the most alive human, and if it wasn’t on the edge, it didn’t interest him,” says musician Ben Harper, who appears in the film’s first trailer, out today.
The full documentary will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on April 23, just over nine years after the actor’s untimely death in 2008. Directed by Derik Murray for Spike TV, it contains never-before-seen footage of Ledger as well as tributes by his friends and colleagues, including Naomi Watts, Ben Mendelsohn, and Ang Lee, who directed Ledger in landmark love story Brokeback Mountain in 2005.
“Even as a supporting actor he will steal the whole show. That’s the power of Heath Ledger,” Lee muses to the camera. Any child of the 90s, knows this to be true. Ledger was the real deal: an actor who could play the local bad boy on a soap opera, a medievally garbed heartthrob, a cowboy, or a maniacal cartoon villain and always make it look like art.
‘I Am Heath Ledger’ premieres on April 23 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and will screen at select cinemas nationwide on May 3.
Credits
Text Alice Newell-Hanson