Manifesto Part 2

Heath Ledger on the set of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus on 1/18/08. Credit:
Kavi/WENN

Heath Ledger died during the filming of Terry Gilliam’s film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.  Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law were called in  to collectively play the role.  Since the movie is a fantasy piece, having one role played by four different actors isn’t much of a stretch.  Anywho, the three actors have decided to donate their salary to Matilda, Heath’s 2-year-old daughter.

This step is most likely being taken because Heath willed all of his money to his father.  His will of course was written up prior to Matilda’s birth and his dad, Kim Ledger has said that “Matilda will be provided for”.  But some are still unsure of the validity of that statement because Heath’s brothers contend that Kim is squandering the money he’s received from Heath’s death.

Here’s what Gilliam had to say about the gesture:

The great thing about it is that when Heath died, and we have a character that wasn’t finished in the movie, those three actors [Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell] came along and saved the day. And so the character is now basically four actors creating one character. And that’s . . . it’s very interesting, and maybe even more interesting than it would have been with one actor going all the way through. I’m still not the best judge, because I have in my head what the film was going to be with Heath all the way through, and now there’s a different film there. But all I know is, it’s very funny. 

The three actors were totally heroic coming in. This doesn’t happen very often . . . where there’s a tragedy like this, and very famous, very successful actors suddenly say, “Okay, we’ll do whatever it takes to help.” They came; they did the work; they allowed the movie to be finished; they didn’t take money–the money goes to Heath’s daughter. That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, “Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies, in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people. And in our case, we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people, who did extraordinary things to help.
 

The film will be released in 2009. Source and Source via Source

Though Michelle Williams, Matilda’s mama, is an actress and no doubt has no problem providing for her, it’s a beautiful thing these men are doing.

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