Ledger knew price of fame

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles reinvent Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" in 1999's "10 Things I Hate About You."

In the breakthrough, Oscar-winning romance "Brokeback Mountain," Heath Ledger played Ennis, a bisexual cowboy.

Back in 2001, I interviewed an energetic young actor who'd just arrived on the world scene as a new, up-and-coming talent.

He had no idea that in five short years, he would ascend to the highest level of his profession and be awarded a best actor Oscar nomination for his work in Ang Lee's seminal romance "Brokeback Mountain."

His name was Heath Ledger.

The 22-year-old Australian-born actor had just come off the smart and funny teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" and Mel Gibson's "The Patriot," and was about to star in "A Knight's Tale." I asked him about the price of fame.

"That would be on the social side," Ledger told me. "It's being self-aware all of a sudden. You go out and you're aware in your peripheral vision of these muffled comments, these stares. You can't help but be self-conscious. You can't even pick up a glass without being self-conscious. You lose privacy."

I noted that in his cotton pullover, tattered jeans and running shoes, the actor had matched his personality with his clothes -- casual and unpretentious. He was still in that giddy state of wonder that up-and-coming actors experience before the rush of media attention becomes boring and bothersome.

Young Ledger impressed with his grasp on his limitations, as well as his abilities.

"I had to turn down roles that were good roles in good movies because I felt that maybe I just wasn't ready to do it," he admitted. "You have to be smart enough to know what you can't do, because everyone around says you can do anything. But, hey, this character is 30 years old and has four kids! And people will look at you and say, 'We can make it work!'"

Ledger told me he could easily have sold out and milked the sex symbol thing in the wake of "10 Things I Hate About You."

"Right after '10 Things,' I turned down lots of projects where I played another high-school student. In Hollywood, they see you do a certain kind of role, and they take the low risk by asking you to do it again and again. You have to make the decisions about what your career will be. I had to stay strong at that. I had to stay true to my instincts."

Ledger followed his own advice in his personal life, too. At 17, the aspiring actor left home with no plan and few prospects. But he had to do it.

"If I wanted to portray people in this craft, I had to know how to portray myself, I had to know who I was," he said. "I had to have understanding of pain, love and pain from love. So, I had this idea to just jump in a car and hit the road. So I did that at 17.

"I'm still on that journey. It's a tribal thing. It's a walkabout."

• Autopsy results are still pending for Ledger, 28, found dead in his New York apartment on Tuesday. He will star as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," partially filmed in Chicago, and scheduled for release July 18.