‘I Am Heath Ledger’: Joker Actor’s Dad Blames Him For His Death, Will The Documentary Cover The Controversy?

I Am Heath Ledger, a documentary on the actor’s life, is due for release. Ledger, who is most famous for the portrayal of Joker in The Dark Knight, never had the chance to watch the movie due to his untimely death. Now, his sister Kate Ledger has come up with the documentary, which is made of the actor’s home videos. Heath, who also starred in successful movies like 10 Things I Hate About You and Brokeback Mountain, died of a drug overdose at 28 in 2008. The documentary deals with the unseen aspects of the actor’s life, including his passion for photography.

Directed by Adrian Buitenhuis and Derik Murray, I Am Heath Ledger was possible because Health Ledger’s passion for recording his own life. According to Murray, they were deeply interested in making a movie about the actor, especially after they came to know about the depth of his character that went beyond his successful career in acting. The co-director reveals that Ledger had a passion for filmmaking and photography, and that’s what pushed the makers of the movie to go for it.

The Heath Ledger documentary has a lot of footage from his personal home videos. Murray said that the actor began documenting his life quite early in his life. He used the exercise as he practiced his acting skills instead of going to traditional acting classes, which he never went for. He acted out various skits and recorded the performances on his own. Later on, he would watch the clips and improve his skills accordingly. According to Kate, it reflected the creative spirit that Health had.

“He was more than just the celebrity persona that people saw,” Kate said on CBS This Morning: Saturday. He was really multi-talented and just a beautiful soul, and I think that really comes through the film.”

According to Kate Ledger, unlike what the popular notion is, her brother had a great time while working on his role as Joker and faced no trouble to deal with the negativity of the character. People also speculate that the actor’s death had something to do with his portrayal of the evil villain.

While working on I Am Heath Ledger, Murray learned the most interesting things about the actor, which are his passion for photography and how he recorded his performances on camera. The director believes it was more than a hobby for him. Heath Ledger took his camera wherever he went.

“The film is basically wall-to-wall with clips and video and photography that Heath produced, he shot.”

The makers of the Heath Ledger documentary often consider the actor as one of the directors of the movie because of the number of clips used from his own recordings. According to Kate, Heath had plans to become a director. If he was alive, he would surely have made movies, she feels.

Kim Ledger, the actor’s father, opened up about his son’s tragic death eight years after the incident took place. He said it was “totally” his son’s fault. The 66-year-old businessman from Perth, West Australia, said that just hours before his death, Kate had requested her brother not to mix painkillers and sleeping pills. The father said that nobody else but the actor himself was to blame for his accidental death.

“That’s hard to accept because I loved him so much and was so proud of him,” Kim Ledger told the Daily Mail Australia.

It is unclear if the Heath Ledger documentary will feature his father’s take on the actor’s death. I Am Heath Ledger opens in theaters on May 3 and will air on Spike TV on May 17.

[Featured Image by Paul Kane/Getty Images]