Heath Ledger’s death in 2008 was due to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
Director Stephen Gaghan revealed details of Ledger’s passing, including finding the script they were working on with Ledger’s body.
“They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” Gaghan said. “I think my number was on the script, like written. These guys, as you can imagine, they are in shock and they dialed that number and I don’t know why.”
The project they were collaborating on, an adaptation of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink,” faced delays and was eventually picked up by Universal Studios.
“I’m in an airport with my wife [Minnie Mortimer] just going from one place to another, and I literally just collapse, never happened to me before or since,” Gladwell said. “My feet went out from under me. I just literally sat down because I was like, ‘What?’ The emotion, what they were going through, I should not have been a party to in any way really, and yet as a human or as somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening and my wife was looking at me. I remember her face and I was just like, I was speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad. For me, I just had to put a pin in it.”
“We pick a studio, we huddle with our agents, we pick a winner, checks are cashed,” Gladwell said. “Some brilliant producer is assigned to our case, and off we go. Only it never happens. A year passes, then two years, then three years. And this is why we’re doing ‘Development Hell,’ an entire series devoted to scripts that never happen. This is always the most devastating part of the story, the plot twists that happen off the page.”
Gaghan, who had a strong connection with Ledger, had initially written the main character for him before his untimely death.
“I’d gotten to be very, very close with him instantly,” Gaghan said. “I just had a real connection with him that was kind of unusual and really special to me. I got really excited and I started seeing him as the main character. Once I started seeing that I couldn’t unsee it, and obviously it was very delicate in a way. Leo’s totally cool. I mean, obviously, he has a thousand choices, but in my mind it was a big deal.”
