Stephen Gaghan and ‘The Dark Knight’ actor were working on an adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’
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Heath Ledger; Stephen Gaghan
A Hollywood director has opened up about the phone call he received from Heath Ledger’s father at the scene of his death.
Author Malcolm Gladwell talks on the latest episode of his podcast revisionist historydirector Stephen Gaghan told how he received a phone call from Ledger’s father Kim and the actor’s best friend after Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment in January 2008.
Gaghan, 58, explained that he and Ledger were working on a film adaptation of Gladwell’s book at the time: Blink: The ability to think without thinkingand a movie script was found in bed with Ledger.
“The phone rang and I was on speakerphone, and it was Heath Ledger’s father, someone I had never met…and was very close to him. They found the body “We were there with him, our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” Ms. Gaghan told Gladwell. “I think my number was scripted. As you can imagine, they’re shocked. And they dialed that number, and I don’t know why.”
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Mr. Gaghan has directed films such as: Syriana, rules of engagement and dolittlecontinued his reaction to the tragic news he received while at the airport with his wife Minnie Mortimer.
“You literally just fall down. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before or since,” Gaghan said. “My foot went out from under me. I was like, ‘What?’ and I literally just sat there. what? ‘I was never supposed to be a part of their feelings, what they were going through, but as a human being, as someone who just cared, I was just there to listen. His wife was looking at me. She remembers her face, but I was just speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was really, really sad. And it’s still sad. ”
Ledger, who was 28 years old at the time of his death, died of an accidental drug overdose.
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Gagan said he was shocked. dark Knight Due to the star’s death, the film, originally scheduled to star Leonardo DiCario, was never made.
“For me, it was just a prick,” Gaghan said, adding that he and Ledger became “very close” and the two shared a “real connection.”
However, Gaghan went on to admit that revisiting the script before appearing on the podcast made him realize how special it was.
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“I took it out right before I got on. I was reading it and…I thought, ‘Maybe I’m crazy, but I think this script is really good,'” he told Gladwell.
“Maybe it’s time to bring it on.” blink It came back to life,” Gladwell added. “If someone is listening in a big office somewhere in Hollywood, if that’s what you need, I’ll be on a plane tomorrow.”
In 2016, Ledger’s father Kim recalled the last conversation he had with Ledger the night before Heath’s sister Kate died.
“Kate’s last conversation with him was about his medication. She warned him, ‘Don’t mix drugs you know nothing about,'” Kim told news.com.au told. “He said, ‘Katie, Katie, I’m fine.’ Well, that’s the answer of a reckless boy. I think it just put his whole system to sleep.”
The New York City loft where Ledger died was sold last year for $14.3 million. The condo in downtown Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood was sold to an LLC, according to property records obtained by PEOPLE.
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