We wrote about that Heath Ledger Vanity Fair article by Peter Biskind a week or so ago when the scans from that piece made it online and we had to transcribe a bunch of quotes — what a pain, but it did seem to reveal that Johnny Depp’s crazy handlers and busy schedule were the reason Jude Law and Colin Farrell were also called in to help salvage “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”
But the full, 5,000 word piece — which some recently called, “celebrity porn“— is now online. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a pretty fascinating read, but man ‘Parnassus’ director and cinematographer Terry Gilliam and Nicola Pecorini, really go to town on Ledger’s ex- Michelle Williams.
Justified or not, you’d think these guys, out of respect for their deceased friend, might want to speak of such things off the record or not to journalists. Family and friends are obviously reading, but these two are not holding their tongues at all (and they were fairly candid in their remarks about Depp and the difficulties surrounding his people, which include the actor’s sister). In fact, they sound genuinely angered on Ledger’s behalf with some fairly disparaging remarks.
You’ve probably read some of the pre-quotes that came out via People, US Weekly, etc., but you get the full force of it all only in the long-ass Variety feature. Here’s some highlights which gives some larger context.
Yes, Pecorini, Gilliam and Ledger became fast friends. Gilliam and Pecorini are as thick as thieves and evidently “come in a package.” According to Nathan Holmes, Ledger’s former assistant, who became Johny Depp’s assistant after his death, said the bond between director and actor became very tight, very fast. “Terry was to Heath what Tim Burton is to Johnny [Depp]. They struck up a fantastic friendship.”
Ledger Made Parnassus happen: Evidently, ‘Parnassus’ couldn’t get financing until “Heath gave it wings” a source told VF, something that Gilliam couldn’t disagree with. “We couldn’t raise a thing,” relating how indie producers in L.A. told him, “No, we don’t get the idea.” The director tried to entice them with a future he could already foretell, but was still cloudy to the suits at the time. “Do you understand what’s going to happen in the summer of 2008? ‘The Dark Knight’ is going to come out. Heath is going to be the biggest star in the world,” Gilliam would try and tell execs to no avail.
On Michelle Williams: This is where is starts to not only get ugly, but rather presumptuous on their parts. “My impression was they they had nothing in common. They didn’t fit. They kept two separate lives. She never mingled with his friends,” Pecorini told VF. Evidently the 2006 Oscars were around the period when things went wrong (both Williams and Ledger were nominated for “Brokeback Mountain,” neither won). He was apparently anti Oscar hub-bub, she was all for it, the ‘Parnassus’ director claims, something that caused a divide between the couple. “The whole machinery started growing up around them,” he said. “That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, ‘Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently.’ He didn’t care about things like those awards.”
Presumably, you’ve already read quotes like this one where Gilliam and Pecorini encouraged Ledger to take the gloves off when it came to Williams and her lawyers who were after custody of their child Matilda. “He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted—the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, ‘This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out—it’s bad. You’ve got to just walk away from it.’ The stakes kept going up. He wouldn’t listen to any of us.”
It just feels weird these two speaking on behalf of Ledger while he’s gone. Clearly they weren’t privy to everything that went on between Ledger and Williams. Even Biskind the writer of the article says, their version of the relationship “seems incomplete.” He write in the piece that their bitching sounds a “little like the boys complaining when the wife-to-be comes along and breaks up the old gang.”
This quote won’t likely please anyone either and in fact it’s something the cinematographer has said more than once. Pecorini on the Dark Knight: “I know it wasn’t something he believed in. It was just for fun” (One of Ledger’s agent insisted that Ledger was “excited by the role, and proud of the job he had done”).
Now, not sure if either Pecorini and Gilliam have publicists. Gilliam for one seems to work pretty much on the fly and without handlers, letting his daughter take care of a lot of his business, but if anyone from their camp is reading this stuff, they might wanna tug those guys on the shirts and say, “Guys, you really need to cool it here, this is really not making you guys look good.” And you kind of wonder why Gilliam is so outside the Hollywood system. Loose cannons don’t tend to do well within that mechanism and sure, everyone loves Gilliam for that very reason, because he’s outside the system. But maybe just a tiny bit more respect and perspective for a situation you might know all the 100% details about? Though it just seems both guys need a P.R. course.
So, Michelle Williams is Yoko?
Yeah, I don't know, I take this kind of stuff with a pound of salt, not to mention that as collected and private of a person Heath was, I doubt he would appreciate this talk even if it were true, so maybe Gilliam should respect his friend and keep it to himself.
Nobody likes a loudmouth.
i read the article the other day in the library. my thoughts were: the article had little to do w/ ledger, it didn't say anything about him that people didn't already know, and holy christ, gilliam and this pecorini guy are total douchebags. right after ledger died, gilliam, almost immediately, accused WB and chris nolan of "exploiting" his death in promoting TDK. wow, really? and how exactly did they do that? did nolan consent to trashy celebrity pieces like this VF article? did he go on tirades, bad-mouthing everyone and build himself up as ledger's "true bff"? no. if anyone can be accused of exploiting his death, it's fucking gilliam. and pecorini really needs to get over his jealousy regarding TDK. anyone who watches that movie can clearly see that ledger was channeling something altogether otherworldly in his performance. to say that he didn't take it seriously, really, is to undermine his talent and what he brought to the role. he and gilliam just come off as extremely bitter knowing, deep down, that TDK will go down as ledger's crowning achievement. i'm still looking forward to parnassus but honestly i'd prefer to see it for free at this point; i have no interest in supporting gilliam in any way whatsoever. if he was really heath's friend he would not be slinging shit like this after he died. REALLY bad form.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm not a huge Ledger devotee and if I were to chose one guy based on their body of work, I would certainly choose Gilliam, but you gotta call 'em as you see 'em and he and Pecorini really need a filter.
*Too
What the slob? I didn't delete my comment. Repost:
Gilliam is worthless, both as a person and as a filmmaker.
The stuff they said is like something Zach Galifianakis, Michael Showalter or Michael Ian Black would say as jokes when doing their asshole characters. I wouldn't expect a living, breathing human being to be able to sink to this level.
This is just blatant retarded verbal diarrhea and you'd think a so-called artist would have the brains to think, "Oh, shit, maybe I shouldn't be saying this." Especially with the emotional wringer Michelle Williams has been put through the past couple of years. I seriously hope she keeps her daughter, as she grows older, away from all this shit.
Its sad that Heath didnt get to live a long and prosperous life
Unpleasant news? Let’s kill the messenger. Yeah, Gilliam’s a loose canon, but he’s being condemned for his refusal to lie and maintain some fantasy about Heath and his babymama. No one is used to hearing harsh truths; people prefer the Bad Heath and Saint Michelle version.
Gilliam reputedly loved Ledger like a son. He obviously understands how private he was. But he also must be aware that rumors of what went down are waay slanted against Heath – you know, that he was a junkie slut whom Michelle had to dump to save their child. Come ON. I think Gilliam’s speaking out because he thinks it’s more important to defend Heath’s legacy than to play that Hollywood game. It’s about time someone balanced the scales. I'm surprised people here would prefer to buy in to the bs.
Plus, anyone who could make a film like Brazil is a creative genius in my book. Haters can go worship soulless Hollywood product.
I don't think Gilliam is that much of an outsider anyway and this is the type of move anyone would play to make it seem like they knew "who" best. It's not like he's Jodorowsky or Rivette calling Spielberg an asshole or a fascist and threatening to kill him. He's talking about someone else's broken marriage.
It's like Ray Carney's arrogant, obnoxious and condescending shit about Gena Rowlands. It may be true but its unnecessary to spout about it just because you were best ol' pals with the guy who died.
I think that it is also important to remember who wrote this article… Peter Biskind, a gossip hound of the tallest order. I mean, look at the EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS book. A great read but at times veers waaay too close to petty gossiping of who banged who, who pissed off who, etc. His follow-up book about the Weinsteins and Redford is more of the same. Considering how many people he's pissed off in Hollywood I'm surprise anybody talks to him anymore.
Did somebody note that the part about Michelle Williams was a very very small bit of the entire article ?
Sad to see that even blogs about cinema just focus on this (and where's the problem ? A guy likes his friend, his friend divorces so don't wait for the guy to support the wife)
Thank God for writing about this so I don't feel like I'm the only one who knows about the article.
Anyway, it's hard not to be sceptical of what Gilliam has to say about Michelle Williams as an award fiend. If she was one, she would have gotten an Oscar by now.
Whatever happened between Heath ledger and Williams.Heath Ledger never made a nasty comment about his ex in public.His real friends said after his death that Heath Ledger would have wanted his two girls to be happy.Gilliam should respect that.
So its not OK for people who actually knew Heath to talk about their experience with him, but its perfectly all right for you people who did not know him,to write this article about Heath? You do realize that a lot of what they said could have been taken out of context,or maybe just plain made up? When people break up,its stressful and you throw a child in the middle it can get rough.That is normal. The negative stuff that Terry said concerning Heath and Michelle was directed to and was about the lawyers, not Michelle. You media people are all up in arms about what is being said about Heath by friends/co-workers, yet when all the garbage and lies were being printed about him while we waited for the autopsy you all sat back and rode the "lets trash Heath train" to sell more copies and make more money! NONE of you defended Heath then! So don't start now, its too late! This was one of the few trutheful articles,it was not perfect but very close to the truth.Heath was not perfect,he had problems like everyone else. Heath was my friend and I miss him terribly.You do not have the right to defend Heath now,not ever! Matt.
As usual, The Playlist is just demonstrating their irrational hatred of Gilliam and will do anything to make him look bad. If you read the article, you'd understand that it had very little to do with Michelle Williams and was almost entirely about how Doctor Parnassus was affected by Heath's death. It was actually a thoughtful and well-researched article by Peter Biskind who is more than just a cheap tabloid writer.
Anyway, I think it's sad that nobody wants Heath's dark side to be discussed. Just like the Michael Jackson coverage; let's just pretend those last 10 years never happened and talk about his music. Truth is truth, people. Get over it.
Hatred of Gilliam? you're high.
Everything you write about him is negative. You're always assuming the worst about his motives. It's like you don't want him to succeed at all. Sorry if that makes me high but I'm not the only one who has made this observation.
"I'm not a huge Ledger devotee and if I were to chose one guy based on their body of work, I would certainly choose Gilliam, but you gotta call 'em as you see 'em and he and Pecorini really need a filter."
I have to agree with Playlist and the other moralists here for being so distressed by that gossip mongrel, Biskind, and that douchey loose canon, Gilliam. Can't Biskind write about Hollywood without covering actor's actual lives? And can't Gilliam just shut up about his film and his star? What he says may be true but it's unnecessary to spout truth, for heaven's sake. No one wants to hear about what goes on behind the headlines. It offends us. Harsh stuff should be filtered, filtered, filtered.
I, for one, never watched that Lost in La Manchacha documentary because I hate learning about how things fall apart. Why is Gillian compelled to share what really went down with Keith Ledger? I don't want to know stuff like that. No interest whatsoever. Not even sure how I can be criticizing Gllligan, because I would never read his unfiltered babbling anyway. Or Biskit, because I would never read his smut. Thank you, Playlist, for standing up to the outrage of plain-talking filmmakers. Good to know that at least here I'll never find the unvarnished truth.
I, for one, really enjoyed the ENTIRE article as it appeared in the magazine. I think Terry Gilliam and the others have far more right to their feelings and opinions than anyone making comments on the net (myself included) because they were there and they KNEW him. Period. Only one tiny bit of the article concerned Michelle and the breakup. And frankly, I'm a little tired of seeing Michelle portrayed as the grieving saint and Heath as the villain. Did anyone ever stop and ask themselves WHY Ms. Williams has been so "silent" about the whole thing? Because she's a saint? I also agree with Matt… The whole world was speculating and talking trash, not only before the autopsy report was released, but long after. Then TDK came out and suddenly that shifted. Heath's friends have every right to their opinions. I see no fault in them for speaking the TRUTH. And I'm certain there was probably much more Terry, Nicola, Steve and Gerry could have said but didn't. And I'll tell you one thing: reading that Heath was supposed to have seen his daughter right before he died and was denied that, BROKE my heart for him.
So then if you don't hate Terry Gilliam, are you at least an impartial paid hit-piece writer for the establishment? Because any Gilliam fan even paying attention half of the time has realized by now The Playlist has been attempting to assail Parnassus and Gilliam since way back when you "writers" allegedly read the film's script. Since then it's been one spurious jab after another. Who exactly do you think you are fooling?
BTW, your last bit of angling smells more like a TMZ report than any decent blog.
Huh, i figured it was possible Biskind took his quotes out of context, but it seems that Gilliam stands-behind the article whole-heartedly as he's requested that journalists preface their interviews with him by reading the Vanity Fair story.