Heath Ledger Found Dead In NY Apartment (Breaking News)

“True, some can cry better than others but I just don’t see that as noble.

I like to be entertained by actors, but I can’t say I respect them.”

To clarify: I never said acting is “noble.”

I said it was a craft and that I respect excellence in a craft, regardless of the craft. I also said that I can admire the craft without necessarily admiring other aspects of a particular individual’s life. But I could say that about any profession.

Actors, IMO, are like anybody else. Sure, there are actors who are “naturals,” just as there are “naturals” who are baseball players, cabinet-makers, chefs, entrepreneurs or any other craft or profession; but you don’t get very far just on being a “natural.”

To evaluate an actor, you need to look at his or her entire career. I have seen brilliant flash in the pan performances by people who never quite panned out over time. We don’t know what kind of a performer Heath Ledger would have turned out to be, since he died so young. For such a young man, though, he had accumulated quite a remarkable body of work.

“That caught my attention too, that none of the obits mention “The Patriot”. As if it’s “poison” because it was made by Mel Gibson.” BTW, I wonder if Mel has commented on Heath’s death.

Which obits are you reading? The ones I read did mention The Patriot. It was his “breakthrough” role, the first “adult” role he had done after a series of teen-age characters. And yes Mel Gibson has commented. Mel said: “I had such great hope for him. He was just taking off, and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss.”

For ex., the New York Times obit says:

“The payoff came in an audition for Mel Gibson’s film “The Patriot” — Mr. Ledger’s second audition; he had walked out of the first, saying his first was no good. He later appeared in .... [a list of his later movies follows].”

The BBC says:

“At the age of 19, Mel Gibson spotted the talent of his fellow Australian and cast him in The Patriot over 500 other hopefuls. Internationally, it proved to be his breakthrough movie.”

There is only one thing as bad as a faggot (a certain sub-species of “homosexual”) who MUST put everything in life through a homoerotic lens and that is a “hetero-sexual” who must put everything in life under a “I hate homosexuals” lens.

Life is so much greater than sexuality alone and none of us are without sin.

If one must deride Ledger for his role in Brokeback, then let’s undo the accolades given to his professional predecessors in their campy cross-dressing roles back in the 1940s and 50s, like Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Or, further, throw out the oscar-caliber performances of Montgomery Clift, because he struggled in real life with the issue Ledger only portrayed as an actor.

I once had a friend who said she didn’t like a particular actress, because of her role in a certain movie - the character being portrayed was a really rotten person. I laughed as I reminded her that that performance was perfect because you really saw, through that actress, what a rotten character it was.

The role of an actor - a good actor - is not to obtain our love for the character they portray, but to get us to suspend reality and believe their character as though it were real.

I think Ledger was one of the few actors of his generation that believed that and challenged himself to try and achieve it. The film-making future now foreclosed to him will be missed for what he had yet to show us.

just as there are “naturals” who are baseball players, cabinet-makers, chefs, entrepreneurs or any other craft or profession; but you don’t get very far just on being a “natural.”

Quite different. There are plenty of "actors" in Hollywood who make it just on looks or maybe personality. That can never happen in the world of well-paid cabinet-makers, baseball players, and chefs.

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