Holding Heath Ledger's Key

My name is Rebekah. Heath Ledger is my hero.

[idealizationalists]

18 Years In The Sunlight.

January 22, 2008

I was a child when I first started sharing all of the things about Heath Ledger that inspired me.

Today, the 31 year-old version of me still remembers Heath Ledger as the one who inspires me. Today marks the anniversary of another year in the sun. Today, I share a piece of Heath that helps me see, that helps me feel, and helps me live through all the numbness of the world.

When anything is blocking my head or there's worry in my life, I just go sit on Mars or something and look back here at Earth. All you can see is this tiny speck. You don't see the fear. You don't see the pain. You don't see thought. It's just one solid speck. Then nothing really matters. It just doesn't. -Heath Ledger

And I say, it’s alright.

[idealizationalists]

Well, Heath.

I haven’t said anything on this page in a while. I started this page when I was 17 years old in high school. Heath really helped me through those times, I always said that.

This year makes the first year I didn’t remember January 22nd on January 22nd. It has been 17 years since Heath Ledger left us. So much has changed, but Heath never left my heart. I still think about him, actually.

So, today I can say a thing: Well, Heath. Thank you for your ways and legacy that helped shaped me into the person I am today.

Now that I am two years older than what Heath last was, I still look ahead as if he is someone a mile ahead of us, giving us a light of guidance on our paths.

[idealizationalists]

"Honesty always gets my attention. Not particularly someone who is honest to me, but someone who is honest with themselves. That is a quality I really enjoy, admire, and love."

- Heath Ledger

16 years.

[idealizationalists]

Never Forgot.

16 years ago.

Close your eyes, you can feel his peace; an inspiration.

[idealizationalists]

I had to come back. So much has happened in the life, I had decided that it was enough to let Heath Ledger sleep in my memory. Today made 15 years since the earth lost Heath. I am astonished, as always, at the beautiful imprint that’s still visible of Heath after all these year. Having myself now reached the age Heath Ledger last was in this life, I think back on the comparisons I made as a child. I still make a comparison, and can hear Heath saying “Don’t live my life.” His wise whisper. His words,    “The awards, it’s certainly an honor to be part of a film that’s received that way. But to me, no matter what, it’s still like a false sense of success and failure at the same time.” How we long to be as ambitious, bravely driven like Heath was. How he was translated so gracefully within his success. I learn from his life, and I’m learning mine. I’m learning the process. I’m learning from his guiding wind. The man that has been translated into some kind of myth or legend that left the earth 15 years ago. That day 15 years ago, it would never be the same because of the journey that he started and is still being taken.

[idealizationalists]

                        PHOTOJOURNALIST TALKS ABOUT HOW SOFT                               HEATH LEDGER WAS ON THE INSIDE:         

“He was promoting A Knight's Tale...I got some standard over-the-shoulder shots during the interview, and then was allowed a few minutes with Ledger to make some additional images in the courtyard...The courtyard had a nice fountain. I was about to ask him to sit on the side of the fountain when I noticed a honeybee was already there. Since we have Africanized bees "killer bees" in Texas, I wasn't keen on letting any bee sting a movie star. So, I scooped the little bugger into the fountain. It was a bad decision on my part. Ledger and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to save it. I kept thinking it would sting him, and I'd be responsible. Meanwhile, my shooting time meter continued to count down. Groovy. Nonetheless, once the bee was safe and sound, we got back to the shoot. Ledger was accommodating, and I got some decent shots.”

[idealizationalists]

On the anniversary of the day Heath Ledger was born, I think about him. I haven’t thought too deeply about him in a long while. After the craziest year of our lives and witnessing so much loss, I took a break. But, Heath Ledger came back clicking in my mind. The words he said:    “I ONLY DO THIS BECAUSE I’M HAVING FUN. THE DAY I STOP HAVING FUN, I’LL JUST WALK AWAY.” One of his most famous quotes, put next to images to insinuate he was talking about walking away from life.  What clicked in my mind is its profound meaning, what Heath was actually talking about. As I grow and experience life, I understand like I never did. He was talking about the process of moving on. He was talking about what life should be like and the signs to look for. That if we are partaking in any endeavor that is not bringing us joyful fulfillment, it’s the day to look away from that endeavor and gravitate toward what fulfills us. I have been reclaiming lost time and gravitating toward fulfillment. This is why Heath Ledger is commemorated on his birthday. Because he is life and inspiration that always finds the pathway back to me to lead the way.

[idealizationalists]

“They want me to get a cellphone so they can hunt me down but I won’t do that. I don’t like cellphones. They kill moments. When I’m with my friends and I’m not working, we’ll all be sitting around talking and everyone’s all relaxed and then all of a sudden it’s like brring, brring. And everyone sits back while someone answers their phone. It just kills the moment, absolutely just shatters it. And I can’t afford to lose those moments- I enjoy them too much.”                                                                     - Heath Ledger

[idealizationalists]

I promise you that I’m smiling today because of all the things learned from you. 

Heath Ledger, 12 Years.

[idealizationalists]

Heath Ledger always saw an artistic speck of paint in everything. There was always some message, some deep inspirational speck in everything he said too. He never under-answered questions, he always went deep into his own skull and delivered the most. That’s why I’m still learning from him. 12 Years, Heath Ledger. 

[idealizationalists]

“He was the only guy who ran out of an audition. I auditioned him how you normally audition people and all of a sudden, in the middle of the audition he says ‘I suck’ and ran out. I turned to April Webster, my casting director and said ‘April, bring him back. He was good’. She needed three weeks to talk him into coming back. And then he came back and he had blue hair. I luckily had a hat that (he had in the movie)...and then he finally got through the thing...he was like the perfect actor for this part...he was very insecure about himself always. He was always not really happy with what he did, but that’s actually good for an actor because if they’re too confident they will never ever improve...He did the death scene of him, and then Mel did his and he was so good. Then, Heath comes to me and says ‘Can I do my scene again?’ There was something noble about him, something honest. I think that’s why Heath became such a big actor because there was something real about him, but he was incredibly insecure.” 

                       - Roland Emmerich on Heath Ledger’s Audition                            For ‘The Patriot’

[idealizationalists]

The older I get, the closer I get to Heath’s final age, and I now can look at him and understand his vulnerability and fragility. I understand the weight of the world on young shoulders. I can now see the complexities in his ways that was labeled as simply endearing simply because he was famous. His shyness, his nervousness in interviews as he followed the Hollywood salesman script to promote his movies, how he would sit there with a tight, crooked slight smile and look on. He was only in his twenties. He was growing. It’s as if the pressure of it all on top of his sincerity and the vulnerability as a newcomer made him many years beyond what he actually was. For him to be as shy as he was but still be the great actor that willed to open himself like a tablecloth in front of the entire world and let out all of the madness without filter speaks of how incredible he was. I understand his words a bit more about his fragility and insecurities in every role he took. It was a lot, but this shy young boy had a passion to reveal his madness. It took a lot for him to do that. When he played the Joker, when he had let out the biggest amount of madness he had ever let out, he was done. 

[idealizationalists]

           Heath Ledger On Meeting Bob Dylan

“I’m not sure I want to meet Bob Dylan. You know there’s some people I like to keep in the shadows purely because I think so much of them. Look, if I was Bob Dylan and I met me, I’d kind of blow me off. I fear that happening because I think so highly of him.”

[idealizationalists]

Heath Ledger. 40 years since his birth. Heath Ledger remains wise beyond his years, now serving as a mystical force and a guiding light somewhere. Heath was always destined to be streets ahead. April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008.

[idealizationalists]

“If I didn't do this I don't know what I'd do. I don't think I could do a regular 9 to 5 job. The only thing I've ever done professionally is acting. Maybe I'd do something close to a beach. Other than that I'd probably take photos. I'd probably have to draw on something I could do, and that's photography, but I'd hate to ever think I'd have to turn a passion into a profession.”                                                                  - Heath Ledger

[idealizationalists]

Heath Ledger’s “Patriot” Co-Star Remembers Him:

"I was intimidated by how worldly wise he seemed to be and how much he understood himself. He took a house in the forest while we all lived together in a condo. Like many in my profession, I seem to need company and to fill the silence with noise; he didn't need that, and he was very happy in his house in the forest. I know 21-year-olds; I'd never met a 21-year-old like him." 

[idealizationalists]

“An actor's a bit like a gypsy and I like that. It's been in my nature from an early age. My parents were divorced when I was about 10, and from that point on I spent two weeks with my mum, two weeks with my dad, for the next four years. So I was just going back and forth, back and forth, packing and unpacking. Then it got to the point where I was like, 'I gotta get out of Perth,' and bang - I moved out of Perth and just kept moving. And I've still kept moving up till now...”                                                      - Heath Ledger January 22, 2008- January 22, 2019