Hollywood director reveals heartbreaking new detail about Heath Ledger’s tragic death

Stephen Gaghan has revealed heartbreaking new details about Heath Ledger’s tragic death for the first time.

The Hollywood director, 58, has spoken about a devastating phone call he received from Heath’s father Kim after the Australian actor’s death on January 22, 2008.

Heath tragically died of an accidental drug overdose in his New York apartment at the age of 28, and sixteen years later, Stephen now tells how he heard the news.

He talked about Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History: Development Hell – which examines projects that didn’t make it to theaters – about a film Blink wanted to make with Heath.

On the podcast he explained how Heath was found with a copy of the Blink script next to him, while one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books was also on his bedside table.

The screenwriter told how Heath’s father Kim, who he had never met, saw his phone number on the script and called him after he arrived on the scene in a moment of shock and grief.

When he first spoke about the call, he recalled, “The father and the man closest to him in his professional life, they were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and (Gladwell’s) book was on the radio. the bedside table.

“I think my song was scripted, as written. These guys, as you can imagine, are in shock and called that number and I don’t know why.”

He devastatingly said he “broke down” when he heard the heartbreaking news during the phone call, which came while he was at an airport with his wife Minnie Mortimer.

“I’m sitting in an airport with my wife, just traveling from one place to another, and I literally collapse, which has never happened to me before or since,” he said.

The Hollywood director (pictured in 2020), 58, has spoken about a devastating phone call he received from Heath’s father Kim following the Australian actor’s death on January 22, 2008.

‘My feet went out from under me. I literally just sat down because I was like, ‘What?’

“The emotion, what they were going through, I really shouldn’t have been a party in any way, and yet, as a human being or as someone who just cares, I was just there and listening and my wife was watching me.

“I remember her face and I thought, I was speechless. I listened and listened and listened. It was just very sad. And it’s still sad. For me, all I had to do was stick a pin in it.”

Stephen also reflected on his “very special” bond with Heath and how he planned to make “a lot of movies” with the Joker star before his tragic death.

‘I met Heath Ledger and I immediately had a very close relationship with him. I had a real connection with him that was unusual and very special to me,” he said.

Heath tragically died of an accidental drug overdose in his New York apartment at the age of 28, and was found with the script for Stephen’s film Blink next to him

“I felt like I loved this guy and was going to make some movies with him — and then I got (the) call.”

Stephen said he decided to ‘put a pin’ in his plans for the film Blink after years of development following the news of Heath’s death.

He explained that he had previously considered Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead role, but after meeting Heath, he couldn’t see anyone but him playing the character.

Stephen is best known for his work on the 2020 films Dolittle, 2016’s Gold and 2005’s Syriana, and for writing the screenplay of Steven Soderbergh’s film Traffic.