Excerpt: One clue, offered by the Los Angeles Times as evidence of the actor’s downward spiral, was a clip from an interview with Ledger in December about his role in I’m Not There. The interviewer claimed Ledger “was clearly slurring and unfocused,” but viewers would find a video of a disappointingly lucid Ledger, discussing his view that biopics run the risk of defaming their subject: “Because you’re assuming too much. I think this movie avoids it gracefully by not assuming to know who Bob Dylan is. He’s kept in the shadow … It’s preserving his mystique.”
When Todd Haynes met Ledger in 2006, the actor was already struggling with similar questions about the art of biography, having taken a two-year sabbatical from acting to write a script about the life of singer-songwriter Nick Drake.
“Trying to squeeze this complex, beautiful, and mysterious subject into the confines of the traditional biopic he found reprehensible and kind of cruel,” says Haynes. “He was starting to approach it through a more allegorical method, where it was going to be about a woman traveling on a train ride through Europe—which Nick Drake I think did do—and he was going to have Michelle play that role.” Now, the idea that Ledger had spent two years trying to get inside the head of an artist who suffered from depression and insomnia and died at 26 from an overdose of a prescribed antidepressant has become one more detail to be used as either tragic irony or psychoanalytic insight. from New York magazine here...
Linsay Lohan photo taken by Bert Stern, who took Marilyn Monroes last pictures in this same setting and props.
“Here is a woman who is giving herself to the public,” Lohan said, about the Monroe photos, when we spoke the next day by phone. “She’s saying, ‘Look, you’ve taken a lot from me, so why don’t I give it to you myself.’ She’s taking control back.” Like any tabloid veteran, Lohan understands the potency of a photograph, and that the best way to respond to a society that views you only as an image might just be on its own terms. New York magazine article here...
5 comments:
Interesting stuff. I mean its sad to hear about people dying at such a young age but some just cant take the fame they are handed and what nots. That photo of the woman on the bottom is amazing really. I could never do something that daring and let some strange male take photo's like that of me.. No way. Plus I feel to flabby. LOL.. I have to many rolls.
Tweetey, you've hit on something that is rarely given it's due in the performance world...when actors open themselves up to pose naked or act naked and vulnerable in movies...it really is how generous their spirit is and how brave they are. I've worked with actors in this position behind the camera...and the ons I've worked with have really gone through a huge amount of stress and vulnerability to get t this kind of exposure...it is both emotional and physical.
i still can't believe ledger is dead. his death has affected all of us more than i think any of us would have thought.
celebrity is a role i'd never want to play.
I rather think Ledger was so attuned to everything around him that the intensity of life and his deep seeing into it was too painful for him to continue on. Sad, he was too young and he didn't know he could eventually manage it.
Marilyn, ah, my thoughts are a long on Lohan's take. I am not impressed with Lohan one bit. Monroe's icon is almost too sacred to touch in such a serious manner....she makes a poor Marilyn impersonator, which ever statement she is trying to make.
Martha yes...it is hard to believe...and he was someone that seemed more down to earth...I think that is the shock. I hope a lot of people take care from now on when their doctors prescribe all these drugs...prescription medications are off the hook in our culture...and shocking that they might kill us with bad combinations. It's hard to believe a doctors prescription and medicine killed him.
Gardenia, he was very talented...but it is scary that his death could happen to anyone who is not watching their own prescriptions and taking medicine with caution. Actually...I like Lindsay Lohan as an actress...if she can live long enough and not od herself...it willbe interesting to see what her future acting roles and talents produce.
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