Christopher Nolan on Heath Ledger

Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the 70’s and 80’s that I have a deep personal affinity with actors and celebs I’ve never met. I’m a Reagan-era kid, after all, the actor-politician cemented for me a sentiment that the most important work of all is that of telling stories, pressing enthusiasm, fueling emotion.

It’s why I get to say things to myself like, “Man, if Will Smith only knew me, we’d be buds. Best friends.”

Same thing with Wil Wheaton, Tom Cruise circa “Top Gun”, George Clooney, Jamie Foxx, Edward Norton, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, and the list goes on.

I’m one degree from Tom Cruise, which is sad, because since he went crazy, he’s not that high on the list anymore so I’m not really pursuing it. And Wil Wheaton commented on my blog once — something witty which I’ve since lost to a server crash or somesuch and has to live on in memory alone. Bummer, that.

But always near the top of my “movie stars who would really like me as a person” list is Heath Ledger. He seemed like the quiet guy in the corner, brooding a bit, taking on the tough roles, challenges, and opportunities for others around him to find a piece of spirit. When you’re a child of the 80’s, and you hitch your ride to these storytellers, it’s a blow when they pass so suddenly.

And so it brought some joy to me this morning to read Ledger’s most recent director Christopher Nolan put his thoughts down for Newsweek. He captured for me a piece of that relationship I know Ledger and I would have had, if only he’d known me at all.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.