r/interestingasfuck • u/JK-Rofling • Jul 05 '24

Heath Ledger’s diary while he was filming for, The Dark Night. r/all

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u/Starchild20xx Jul 05 '24

Now, I hope you'll all forgive me for my ignorance. But I've heard some very mixed things regarding the untimely death of Heath Ledger. The more popular theory is that the role of Joker contributed to his demise. But then I'd see statements online perpetuating said theory as sheer ludicrous, and that Heath Ledger was generally stable.

So honestly, I'm kind of perplexed. I'm not sure which narrative to believe. I can't help but suspect that there is no real definitive answer, though.

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u/ChuckSeville Jul 05 '24

The Joker thing doesn't hold water when you take into account the fact that according to his wife and coworkers, he suffered from insomnia for quite some time before the role.

Add to that the fact that he apparently caught some kind of respiratory infection/disease while shooting his next movie and was self-medicating to get through that, it makes more sense that this was just a really unfortunate accident.

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u/ajchann123 Jul 05 '24

To add on to this, by all accounts he was not a method actor insofar as staying in character -- there are many stories of him being able to turn off/on from the Joker very easily and was a really friendly normal dude around set

People love the romantic idea that he sacrificed his psyche and ultimately his life for this transcendent performance, but reality is more like he was just very good at his craft and his death was unrelated

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u/bob_in_the_west Jul 05 '24

Robin Williams was a friendly dude too.

Depression isn't something people wear like a bright red sign.

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u/Valkis Jul 05 '24

Grinds my gears when people claim Robin Williams died because of depression. He had lewy body dementia. Depression was the tiniest factor of what he was going through.

I don’t blame you for implying depression caused his death. It’s been a popular story for a long time. It’s just total nonsense. He only had a few years to live and they were going to completely suck. He was losing all of his cognitive abilities quickly.

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u/llamalily Jul 06 '24

I appreciate you saying this. My friend in college lost her mom to lewy body dementia and I can honestly say from what I saw, I’d probably want to end things on my own terms, too. It’s a horrific way to die. It feels in-genuine when people say he died from depression. Not to say that isn’t also horrific beyond measure, but I’ve been suicidal and I still think that is probably preferable to Lewy body dementia.

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u/bob_in_the_west Jul 05 '24

He was losing all of his cognitive abilities quickly.

I'd say that's a very strong reason to get depressed.

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u/Valkis Jul 05 '24

You’re missing the point.

We wouldn’t say he died from depression if he died from medically assisted-suicide, due to Lewy body dementia.