Two years ago I sat with five other international journalists in a round-table interview with Heath Ledger at the Berlin Film Festival. He was there to promote “Candy”, in which he played a heroine junkie, but this was just before the 2006 Oscars so many of the questions were about his Oscar nomination for “Brokeback Mountain”, alongside with then-wife fiancee Michelle Williams.
Although we threw him soft balls, he was surprisingly forthright and candid. The stories about him training to be a junkie, and learning how to shoot up, on “Candy” are chilling. His stories about his daughter Mathilda, then only several months old, are moving. And his review of his career - where he says “I did mediocre work in mediocre movies” - is refreshing. He seemed very much grounded back then, nothing that would make you suspect that this will be one of the next victims of the Hollywood burnout system.

I’m uploading the entire 22 minutes raw unedited audio file, because there’s something in his voice that now, after his death, sounds so alive, so aware. Heath Ledger was an actor only starting to realize his own talent and depth, and it seemed that his best work was still ahead of him. When I re-listened to this tape, I found it to be heartbreaking. So I’m sharing.

A round-table interview with Heath Ledger, February 2006

(listen here, download here)