New revelations have emerged regarding the passing of Australian actor Heath Ledger. Ledger, aged 28, was discovered deceased by his housekeeper on January 22, 2008.
His demise was officially attributed to an accidental overdose of prescription medications, encompassing painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, and sleeping aids.
Recent disclosures shed light on the moments following his family’s arrival at his residence, as recounted by Hollywood director Stephen Gaghan, in a discussion on Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast series “Development Hell.”
Gaghan recounted how Ledger’s script for Gaghan’s film, an adaptation of Gladwell’s “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” was found alongside the actor.
Noting that Ledger’s phone number was on the script, Gaghan revealed he received a call from Ledger’s father, Kim, which left him “speechless”.
“They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” he told Gladwell. “I think my number was on the script like written. These guys, as you can imagine, are in shock and they dialed that number and I don’t know why.”
“I literally just collapse, never happened to me before or since,” he said. “My feet went out from under me. I just literally sat down because I was like, ‘What?’ The emotion, what they were going through, I should not have been a party to in any way really, and yet as a human or as somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening and my wife was looking at me.
“I remember her face and I was just like, I was speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad. For me, I just had to put a pin in it.”
After Ledger died, the film did too, he said. He struggled to get a studio to take up the project, finally persuading Universal Studios to sign in 2005. However, he realized while developing the script that the lead role was written for Ledger, not Leonardo DiCaprio, who had just been brought on board.
“I’d gotten to be very, very close with him instantly,” Gaghan said of Ledger. “I just had a real connection with him that was kind of unusual and really special to me.
“I got really excited and I started seeing him as the main character. Once I started seeing that I couldn’t unsee it, and obviously, it was very delicate in a way. Leo’s totally cool. I mean, obviously, he has a thousand choices, but in my mind, it was a big deal.”
The project was soon abandoned thereafter.
