Christopher Nolan on Heath Ledger

Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the 70’s and 80’s that I have a deep per­sonal affin­ity with actors and celebs I’ve never met. I’m a Reagan-era kid, after all, the actor-politician cemented for me a sen­ti­ment that the most impor­tant work of all is that of telling sto­ries, press­ing enthu­si­asm, fuel­ing emo­tion.

It’s why I get to say things to myself like, “Man, if Will Smith only knew me, we’d be buds. Best friends.“

Same thing with Wil Wheaton, Tom Cruise circa “Top Gun”, George Clooney, Jamie Foxx, Edward Nor­ton, Judd Apa­tow, Joss Whe­don, and the list goes on.

I’m one degree from Tom Cruise, which is sad, because since he went crazy, he’s not that high on the list any­more so I’m not really pur­su­ing it. And Wil Wheaton com­mented on my blog once — some­thing witty which I’ve since lost to a server crash or some­such and has to live on in mem­ory alone. Bum­mer, that.

But always near the top of my “movie stars who would really like me as a per­son” list is Heath Ledger. He seemed like the quiet guy in the cor­ner, brood­ing a bit, tak­ing on the tough roles, chal­lenges, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for oth­ers around him to find a piece of spirit. When you’re a child of the 80’s, and you hitch your ride to these sto­ry­tellers, it’s a blow when they pass so sud­denly.

And so it brought some joy to me this morn­ing to read Ledger’s most recent direc­tor Christo­pher Nolan put his thoughts down for Newsweek. He cap­tured for me a piece of that rela­tion­ship I know Ledger and I would have had, if only he’d known me at all.

When you get into the edit suite after shoot­ing a movie, you feel a respon­si­bil­ity to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us every­thing. As we started my cut, I would won­der about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visu­al­ize the screen­ing where we’d have to show him the fin­ished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watch­ing the move­ments of his head for clues to what he was think­ing about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screen­ing will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.