Movie star's death hits close
April Young
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: ViewPoint
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Let me start out by saying that my mother is a hair and makeup artist for films. She has done somewhere around 50 films since I was born. When I was really young, she did the film "Tom and Huck" which, if you recall, starred Brad Renfro. He died last week of an apparent overdose. He was only a few years older than I am. I was stunned then, but not in the same way because I had not actually spent time with him like my mother had.
However, when I was 13 my mother managed to get me into one of her films as an extra for the first time. The film was "The Patriot," starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. I had never had so much fun. I nearly met everyone that worked on the film. I stayed with my mother on location for weeks at a time, spending my free time chatting people up. Talking to strangers has always been a habit of mine - or maybe the habit was talking in general.
Just because someone was a movie star did not deter me from trying to talk to them. Many of the stars just chatted along with me like we were friends. Some stars were more reserved or just more caught up in the business of their lives, but no one escaped without talking to me - not even Heath Ledger.
Then again, he was different from the rest of the actors there. First, he was tall. It was my experience that all of the actors were almost always short. He was very quiet, not the kind of quiet that comes from being reserved, the kind that comes from being very observant. If you asked him a question he would answer in as few words as possible.
He didn't do this to be rude, it seemed he did this because he was so preoccupied watching people. I saw him spend his days studying people. I believe he was trying to study the others actors' methods. He wanted to learn all that he could so that he could be a good actor.
Ledger never seemed to be the partying type and if he had been we all would have known about it. On a film set, if anyone has a habit, everyone knows. The things I know about other peoples' habits in the film business is outrageous. I could probably write several articles on the things I know about other movie stars. When you are on a film set everyday, people cannot help but tell you about it and you cannot help but find out about it.