Heath Ledger’s family spoke out about the 'bittersweet' moment they picked up his posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting actor in The Dark Knight.
Ledger died in 2008 at the age of just 28 following an accidental overdose of prescription medications.
He had already filmed The Dark Knight, which included a tribute to Ledger in the movie’s end credits.
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The cast of the film all wore black to the film’s London premiere in honour of the Joker actor, with Christian Bale saying of Ledger in 2008: “When you miss somebody, you want to speak about him. He was a good man, and I was glad to have spent time with him.
“He was somebody who I’d been seeing on a daily basis for months.
“It takes a long time to accept that someone’s gone, when all body and mind are telling you that this is somebody you will know for a great deal of time. He was something of a kindred spirit to myself.”
Ledger’s family accepted the Oscar he won for his role as the Joker, with his sister, mother and father taking the stage.
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His father said when accepting the award: “I have to say this is ever so humbling, being amongst such wonderful people and such a wonderful industry.
“This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be accepted by you all here, his peers, within an industry he so loved.”
His mother went on to say: “Heath was such a compassionate and generous soul who added so much excitement and inspiration to our lives. We have been truly overwhelmed by the honour and respect bestowed upon him by this award.
"Tonight we are choosing to celebrate and be happy for what he achieved”.
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His father, Kim Ledger, later spoke of the experience of accepting the award in 2016.
In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, he said that ‘bittersweet is probably the best way [he] can describe that night’.
“It was only a year and a month since his passing. We hadn’t got our heads around the tragedy of losing him, but at the same time, he was receiving such accolades for what he knew was his best work.”
He went on to say: “It was peer recognition that was important to Heath and the Oscar was the epitome of that.”
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Ledger’s father stated that the Oscar was in a museum at the time of the interview, but that it would eventually go to Ledger’s daughter Matilda, whom he shared with his Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams.
Williams said in a heartbreaking interview with Porter magazine: “In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I’m a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you’ve been.
“In pretty much all senses but one, I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad.
“You know, that’s just something that doesn’t…I mean, it just won’t ever be right”.
Michael Slavin