Ledger was 'versatile', 'brilliant' say 'Parnassus' co-stars

The late Aussie Oscar winner first appears as a rather macabre silhouette in Terry Gilliam’s whimsical Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and perfectly embodies the magic-tragic duality of what would end up being his last film.

Alongside Canadian thesp Christopher Plummer, who plays the loopy and liquored Doctor Parnassus, Ledger's mysterious thief Tony joins the dysfunctional family-cum-circus troop, which already includes the Porcelain Doll-pretty Valentina (model-actress Lily Cole) and performers Percy (Verne Troyer) and Anton (Andrew Garfield), who travel together as part of the quirky sideshow where eternal youth, and it’s assumed, happiness, lingers just beyond the looking glass.

Plummer’s Parnassus is an unlikely father figure to Ledger’s dodgy rogue and the Canuck happily recalled what it was like sharing screen time with the dedicated and ambitious young actor when he was in town for the Toronto International Film Festival.

"He wanted very much to direct films," Plummer told Cineplex. "He was always with Terry, watching Terry, when he wasn’t onscreen. He wanted to learn more and more about it. And everything was happening to Heath. His career was about to explode and such a versatile career it was. Instead of accepting money, he would do something for very little money that was brave and courageous to do. He didn’t play the Hollywood game."

As the story goes, Ledger died at the age of 28 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January of 2008, which left his work on Parnassus unfinished.

Gilliam decided to split the rest of Ledger’s unfilmed scenes between three equally gifted and gorgeous actors in the form of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

Cole, who plays Parnassus’s daughter and Ledger’s love interest in the film, described returning to the set after his death as an understandably bittersweet experience.

"Everyone was very happy to see each other since [we’d] all been split apart on other sides of the world going through the same weird journey so I think there was a really nice feeling of reuniting," she offered. "But it was also melancholy and [there was] a really lovely desire to…like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna finish this. The show must go on; let’s do it.’"

Cole worked closely with Farrell during a few memorable, and rather intimate, scenes in the film and admitted that while having someone else stand in for Ledger was awkward, both actors made the best of it.

"It was a weird situation for both of us. He was friends with Heath, so had come in to finish it, to help, but at the same time, was mourning him. The whole thing felt very strange, I think, to him. It also felt strange to me cause we were all really upset by what happened and it felt weird to see someone else playing Tony’s character."

"But he’s a lovely, lovely guy," she said of Farrell. "I think we were both aware that it was tricky for the other person and sympathetic to that and he did a really good job and it was actually quite an enjoyable process by the end."

Much like the film, which flits between light and dark and good and evil, both Plummer and Cole are saddened to have lost a fellow actor and friend but are happy to let his acting do the talking.

"I feel very, very lucky to have gotten to work with him and meet him in my life," said Cole. "There’s an obvious fascination with him and that comes from a remarkable talent he has an actor. And that remarkable talent comes from being just an incredibly interesting, creative and generous person. I feel lucky to have seen him work."

"What an admirable young man he was," Plummer offered. "It’s sad, of course, but there he is, on the screen."

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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus screens as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, running until September 19, and opens in theatres on Christmas Day.