Heath Ledger's gift (Oscar Update)

Today, 22 January, is a day to remember and to commemorate. Today is a reminder, although none is needed, of a shocking loss, but, while we feel that weight today and think on Heath Ledger and the pain renewed for those who were fortunate enough to have known this remarkable man, I want today to also be a reminder of the gift Heath gave us, through the film that brought many of us together, and which will always be a treasure for the future to hold precious.


Annie Proulx in the Advocate: 'Heath Ledger is just almost really beyond description as far as I'm concerned. He got inside the story more deeply than I did. All that thinking about the character of Ennis that was so hard for me to get. Ledger was just there. He did indeed move inside the skin of the character, not just in the shirt but inside the person. It was remarkable.'


Jake Gyllenhaal to Backstage: 'Look, I feel like Peter Sarsgaard supported me in Jarhead, and I feel like I'm supporting Heath here. I don't know you're supposed to qualify or quantify it, but Heath really carried the story through. I do believe that he's leading the way...'


Film-maker Kevin Smith: 'This ain't just the gay cowboy movie: it's the saddest flick I've seen all year. And I love sad flicks. Heath Ledger's ENNIS exists - that's how genius his non-performance was.'


Jake to Aboutfilm: 'We talked a lot. Heath would say stuff to me like, 'I really think this character is very sensitive to light, and I think he's very sensitive to sound and he doesn't really like being around any place that's too noisy.' Then when it came to doing love scenes and stuff like that, the best metaphor I can give is that we were both like, 'Are you ready?' 'Yeah, let's go.' And we dove off the boat into the deep end.'


Jake, New Love in the Old West: 'I think we have just a chemistry as friends and then I think that we kid of dove into the love scene, and jumped out as fas as we can. These scenes were written in the script where there were paragraphs of screen direction telling you, as an actor, what your character was actually feeling. I remember reading things where it was like, how do you put into action when Jack looks at Ennis that 'a thousand rivers flow through him'? But it was a guide, we had a pretty incredible guide through it.'



'I think what's particularly extraordinary about Heath's performance in the film is that – I remember talking to him before we started working and he said the way he felt like he was approaching his character was the light was too bright for him and the sounds were too strong for him, and he was incredibly sensitive. And as we agreed, our voices changed, and as I aged, I stuck a moustache on my face.'

Heath on Jake: 'The chemistry was on the page, it was in the words, it was written, we just had to portray it. Jake and I, luckily, had been friends for a while, had known each other. We just had to investigate our story and our objectives and believe the love story and that was really it. It was convincing ourselves, I guess.'


Jake: ''Heath is the sort of guy who wears his heart on his shoulder... he's very sensitive and he guards it anyway he can but he's not that great at guarding it and it made me drawn to him, just as you are in the movie and I was in the same way.'

BBM British Costume designer Marit Allen: 'Heath (Ledger) was deeply involved with his character. He worked with his clothes, using everything he wears to convey Ennis' repression - the jackets, done up; the cowboy hats, to hide behind. Between him and Jake (Gyllenhaal) the hats became an integral part of what they were doing.'


Jake to Bent: 'Heath and I trusted each other enough to take risks. It was wonderful creating an intimacy with him. He made me feel comfortable; he made me want to be present, and that's the best you can ask for from someone you're acting with.'

Heath received an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain. Today is the day on which we will learn if he is nominated for another. Ironic is one word for it, I suppose.


You may want to take a look at this video.

Update: I'm delighted to say that Heath has been nominated for an Oscar, alongside Robert Downey Jr and - further irony - Philip Seymour Hoffman. You can see the full list of nominees, which also includes David Fincher, here.

Includes pictures from IHJ and scans from WDW.