Where were you when Heath Ledger died?
I was at work. It was lunch time and I was the only one in the office. I found out via email from a friend (who found out from a coworker). I immediately read everything available on the internet (nothing at first and then remarkably interesting developments on the rags as the news developed). I didn't talk to anyone about it, but as the afternoon unfolded person after person after person informed me.
"Heath Ledger is dead."
"Woah, Heath Ledger is dead."
"Dude, Heath Ledger is dead."
I don't know if the wording was a headline catchphrase or if people just chose something more reverent, but in my circles, no one said, "Heath Ledger died." It was always IS DEAD. FULL STOP. I got three instant messages and a yelling-down-the-hallway-office announcement all within four hours. People seemed to think that people needed to know. Perhaps it's because he is our peer, our poster boy. He is an actor of my generation.
He was the first actor I ever loved. 10 Things I Hate About You was the first movie I ever loved. I tried to dress like Julia Stiles. I dreamed of getting kissed in a paint ball field. When The Patriot came out I couldn't decide whether or not to see it. On the one hand, it was about war, but on the other hand, Heath. I never saw it, but I exercised my growing knowledge of the internet to find pictures from it. When I meet people who haven't seen A Knight's Tale I practically force them to watch it with me. I remember feeling proud when he was cast in the buzzed Brokeback Mountain. I was proud when he got he got the Oscar nomination and all the "old" "people" were talking about the young guy with the talent. My guy, I thought.
I didn't realize everyone had a Heath Ledger story. I didn't realize how loved and acclaimed and missed he would be. Granted, we had gone our separate ways in recent years; I'd been stolen away by older men and by the television and I didn't even realize that he'd split last year from Jen Lindley. But Heath had apparently made a name for himself while I'd been cheating, and his too-soon death has created a ripple in our digital, twenty-first-century fabric that speaks loudly of our surprising dependence on one another.
Comments
This makes my heart sad.
I have 10 Things I Hate About You on VHS. I'm actually surprised it still works, I watched it so many times.
Posted by: Jennie! | January 24, 2008 7:20 AM
I am SO OLD. When I saw the headline and his mug I tried really hard to place him. Ya know, if there were more photos than Jolie and Pitts and Ophra, and Jay Lo and oh,yeh, BRITTANY and her hobag sis on the front pages of tabloids at the check out line , or on the front of web pages of websites --- maybe, just maybe I could place him. I thought maybe he was the dude in,... oh, man I can't remember the movie - was it 10 things I hate about you?... this is taking waaaay to much energy. I am sorry for you, though. It must be sort of how your grandmother felt like when Judy Garland died.
Posted by: sally | January 24, 2008 8:03 AM
OMG, YES! I WAS RIGHT (I just checked) It was him. He was the first person I thought of - the guy you mentioned on your post! Yes, that's who I thought it was.
Sad.:(
Posted by: Sally | January 24, 2008 8:05 AM
Dude, I've had the same experience. Literally the the news broke on TMZ and I heard from three separate people within minutes. People are freaked out by this...I'm not sure the old people really care all that much but everyone I know had this weird compulsion to tell everyone they knew, like, it was a matter of extreme urgency that everybody know as fast as possible. Like maybe if you say it enough times it won't be true.
Posted by: Ashley | January 24, 2008 9:43 AM
I think the last sentence of this post is so true, Abs. We know so much about everyone that it feels as if our neighbor just passed away.
Posted by: Cate | January 24, 2008 10:03 AM
Sucks. Just sucks. A Knight's Tale is one of my favorite movies of all time. He had so much left to do... it just sucks.
Posted by: shari | January 24, 2008 3:50 PM
I was sitting in a bar called McP's in Coronado, California. I saw his face on CNN and wondered aloud why they had a story about him up. A drunk man informed me that "Yeah, he offed himself. Good thing, too, one less pill-popping idiot Hollywood dude."
Yes, I then drop kicked him in the nuts.
Posted by: Courtney | January 25, 2008 6:53 PM
I was on a plane, flying home. It's strange, right? The way you can miss someone you have never actually "met." But then again, maybe not so strange. I would miss you if you went anywhere. (Don't even think about it.)
Also: 10 Things I Hate About You was also the first movie I! ever loved. And quoted (and still quote!) mercilessly down the halls of my high school. It was filmed just a stone's throw away from my hometown and I still to this day refuse to part with my old and tattered VHS copy.
(You should watch The Patriot. Except it will probably make you cry. But, still. Good.)
Posted by: kerrianne | January 26, 2008 2:12 PM