Heath Ledger's sister clears up rumour linking Joker role to actor's death at I Am Heath Ledger premiere
Heath Ledger ’s tragic death before the release of The Dark Knight led to rampant speculation over how playing the Joker contributed to his mental health.
Speaking at Tribeca Film Festival following the premiere of the documentary I Am Heath Ledger . the actor’s sister Kate dismissed those rumours.
"I was really shocked because that was him having fun," she told the audience at a Q&A, according to The Telegraph . "Every report was coming out that he was depressed and that [the role] was taking this toll on him, and we're going, honestly, it was the absolute opposite. It couldn't be more wrong.
"He had an amazing sense of humour, and I guess maybe only his family and friends knew that, but he was having fun. He wasn't depressed about the Joker!”
Films to get excited about in 2017
Films to get excited about in 2017
1/22 Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o
Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens.
Release Date: 15 December 2017
2/22 Thor: Ragnarok
Director: Taika Waititi
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo
Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline.
Release Date: 27 October 2017
3/22 Song to Song
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, and Cate Blanchett
Plot: Two intersecting love triangles. Obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas.
Release Date: Unknown
4/22 Wonder Woman
Director: Patty Jenkins
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen
Plot: After leaving her all-female island, Wonder Woman discovers her full powers and true destiny while fighting alongside soldiers during World War I.
Release Date: 2 June 2017
5/22 The Circle
Director: James Ponsoldt
Cast: Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, and Karen Gillan
Plot: A young female tech worker takes a job at a powerful internet corporation, quickly rises up the company's ranks, and soon finds herself in a perilous situation, which that involves privacy, surveillance and freedom. She comes to learn that her decisions and actions will determine the future of humanity.
Release Date: 28 April 2017
6/22 The Beguiled
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, and Angourie Rice
Plot: A Union soldier is held captive in a Confederate girl boarding school, and begins to con himself to each of their hearts.
Release Date: 23 June 2017
7/22 You Were Never Really Here
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola
Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong.
Release Date: Unknown
8/22 Annihilation
Director: Alex Garland
Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac
Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor.
Release Date: Unknown
9/22 Wonderstruck
(image from Far From Heaven)
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves
Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Release Date: Unknown
10/22 Suburbicon
(image of director George Clooney)
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac
Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal.
Release Date: Uknown
11/22 Okja
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cast: Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano
Plot: A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend — a massive animal named Okja.
Release Date: Unknown
12/22 Dunkirk
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, and Mark Rylance
Plot: Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.
Release Date: 21 July 2017
13/22 Mother
(image of Darren Aronofsky)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris
Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
Release Date: Unknown
14/22 The Killing of a Sacred Deer
(image from The Lobster)
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone
Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results.
Release Date: Unknown
15/22 Blade Runner 2049
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto
Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Release Date: 6 October 2017
16/22 Lady Bird
(image of director Greta Gerwig)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges
Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year.
Release Date: Unknown
17/22 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
(image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac
Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.
Release Date: Unknown
18/22 How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman
Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon.
Release Date: Unknown
19/22 The Dark Tower
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor
Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world.
Release Date: 28 July 2017
20/22 The Shape of Water
(image of Guillermo del Toro behind the scenes of Crimson Peak)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer.
Plot: An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963.
Release Date: Unknown
21/22 Alien: Covenant
(image of director Ridley Scott behind the scenes)
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce
Plot: Headed toward a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew members of the colony ship Covenant discover what they believe to be an uncharted paradise, but it is actually a dark, menacing world in which the only inhabitant is the synthetic David, a survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.
Release Date: 19 May 2017
22/22 Baby Driver
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, and Kevin Spacey
Plot: A young, music-loving expert getaway driver is coerced into a heist for a mob boss, which threatens his life, love and freedom.
Release Date: 18 August 2017
Ledger died in 2008 having overdosed on prescription drugs. His role in The Dark Knight — based on the Batman comics — was rapturously received by critics, with Ledger being awarded a posthumous Oscar.
"I hope it's an antidote to a lot of the gossip that exists in the world," the documentary's producer Matt Amato said. "There are some really terrible things about Heath out there.
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”
I Am Heath Ledger has been met with middling reviews, both Hollywood Reporter and Variety stating the film, while offering some intimacy, barely scratches the surface of Ledger’s legacy.