While promoting his upcoming romantic drama We Live Time, which also stars Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield appeared on the Happy Sad and Confused podcast. Speaking to the host, Josh Horowitz, the actor recalled working with his The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus co-star, the late Heath Ledger.
The actor, who had just finished filming The Batman, had a certain air about him on the sets. “He had just done the Joker, he had just finished doing The Dark Knight, and he was so smug about it,” Garfield recalled. “I was like, ‘How did that go?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really good,’” he added.
When the two collaborated, the Tick Tick Boom actor was a rookie, while the late actor had earned acclaim for his works, such as 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight’s Tale, and Brokeback Mountain. When Ledger was featured on the Empire Magazine cover, he spoke to Garfield about what went wrong with his cover image.
He was like, ‘Oh, they used a f—ing s— photo,’” Garfield shared. “And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, dude that looks f—ing incredible.’” But he continued to disagree, stating it looked conventional. “You’ll see,’” the Joker actor said. “And yeah, I did see,” Garfield admitted.
Unfortunately, Ledger passed away months before the release of The Dark Knight. The actor was found dead in his Manhattan apartment at age 28 on January 22, 2008, and the reason was ruled out as accidental overdose.
When the DC film was released six months after the actor’s tragic passing, the Christopher Nolan-helmed film broke several box-office records and became the year’s highest-grossing film. The film, hailed as one of the best superhero films ever, earned several accolades. Ledger was honored with several awards posthumously, including an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
“He was a kind of beacon, it was like a wild animal,” Garfield said. “He was so free and so wild and so, kind of dangerous on set in a way that was the kind of thing that is inspiring and spontaneous,” he added. Before every take, Ledger would declare for everyone to have fun. “He was just a very generous, beautiful, creative spirit,” Garfield added.
