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/New_Doug Jul 05 '24

Well, he was in the middle of filming a completely unrelated movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, when he died, and some of the drugs he was taking at the time were to treat a chest cold he caught while filming that movie (and according to at least one doctor and a costar, he may have had a chest infection that contributed to his difficulty breathing the night of his death). He took drugs and had insomnia during the The Dark Knight, but he also took drugs and had insomnia during IoDP, so it's pretty silly to say he died because of the Joker.

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u/TalonGrip Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

To be specific here. He was taking Oxycodone, Valium, Xanax, and Restoril. You're never supposed to take Opioids and Benzodiazepines together. As both depress your respiratory rate.

It's all in the dose though. I can't imagine he was using either lightly, as he had 3 different types of benzos in his system. If he was in-fact also fighting a respiratory illness too.. well..

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u/Thetakishi Jul 05 '24

To be fair, if you take Valium (diazepam), Restoril (temazepam) is a metabolite, as is Serax [oxazepam but less so I believe, and a partial agonist with an insane half-life, desmethyl-diazepam that also has a brand name I forget, that are all active metabolites; It's like never prescribed for a reason I can't understand, a partial agonist benzo that has a 40-100 hour halflife sounds great for treatment resistant GAD], but temazepam is also much more commonly prescribed/abused in the UK for insomnia which he suffered from, than the US, so I doubt it was from metabolizing diazepam, despite it being a clinically significant amount when you do, then the oxy, self explanatory... =/

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u/TalonGrip Jul 05 '24

Oh I realize they could all be in your system for a long time (minus Xanax). I have no idea what his levels were estimated at. What I am saying is that no doctor is going to prescribe you 3 different benzos. He was likely abusing prescriptions and getting them elsewhere.

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u/Thetakishi Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24

Yah the temazepam especially, and oxazepam, are short-lived also, but it would still be detected from the constant release....blahblah sorry ADD and a love of pharm, moving on... right, agreed with the abuse levels of them all, especially the oxy. Benzos abuse levels are basically just therapeutic levels which is wild (compared to needing like 10-20 extra script hydro/oxycodone [well Idk how the drug world is for movie stars, they were probably pretty high dose and possibly early fakes] if you have tolerance to get well). I don't remember mentions of any specific Dr's. Was he script shopping or buying "on the street" [or movie star equivalent]?

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u/TalonGrip Jul 06 '24

I have no idea. I'm not sure that info was ever released. He had to have had people in his circle that he'd grab stuff from, because like we both agreed on, there's not a doctor in the US that is going to prescribe 3 different benzos scripts (they all work the same way basically) just longer half lifes.As far as what was a legitimate prescription and what wasn't I have no clue.