Actor Heath Ledger who is playing the Joker in the upcoming Batman film was found dead today in his New York apartment, apparently from an overdose of both prescription and nonprescription sleeping pills. Various media reports say he has battled substance abuse for some time.
In this interview
from The New York Times two months ago, there are some clues as to his mental state. He is discussing his roles in the Bob Dylan biopic and in The Dark Knight and the stress the roles caused him.
It all tied him in knots. "I stressed out a little too much," Mr. Ledger said.
He tends to do that. He is here in London filming the latest episode of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight. (Mr. Bale, as it happens, plays Batman; Mr. Ledger plays the Joker.) It is a physically and mentally draining role - his Joker is a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy" he said cheerfully - and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," he said. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.
Even as he spoke, Mr. Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette. He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat, put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette. Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption. "It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself," is how he put it, a little apologetically.
Conducting a tour of the house, which he is renting for a few months, he made wry remarks about the art. One painting depicts a crowd of creatures who appear to be in hell, but who seem determined to extract as much sexual pleasure as they can from their eternity of free time; Mr. Ledger has turned another one around and hung it upside down, to no apparent ill advantage.
Heath was only 28 years old; he has a two year-old little girl named Matilda. Matilda's mother is actress Michelle Williams, with whom Heath was involved with for three years. The couple broke up in September, 2007. What a terrible tragedy for his family.
