Hollywood Director Shares New Details About Heath Ledger’s 2008 Death

New details have emerged about the 2008 death of actor Heath Ledger at the age of 28.

The “10 Things I Hate About You” star died from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008, but now film director Stephen Gaghan is sharing some details about finding out Ledger had died, including his connection to the tragedy.

Gaghan was working with the Australian star on the film “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” which was based on a book written by Malcolm Gladwell. He recently recalled getting a call from Ledger’s father just after the actor was found dead in his home by his housekeeper.

“I got a phone call, they were on speakerphone and it was Heath Ledger’s father, who I’d never met … and a guy who was really close to him. They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table,” he told Gladwell during an appearance on the “Revisionist History” podcast series “Development Hell,” per People. 

“I think my number was on the script, like written. These guys, as you can imagine, they are in shock and they dialed that number and I don’t know why,” Gaghan continued.

“I’m in an airport with my wife [Minnie Mortimer] just going from one place to another, and I literally just collapse, never happened to me before or since,” the director said. “My feet went out from under me. I just literally sat down because I was like, ‘What?’ The emotion, what they were going through, I should not have been a party to in any way really, and yet as a human or as somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening and my wife was looking at me. I remember her face and I was just like, I was speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad. For me, I just had to put a pin in it.”

The podcast “Development Hell” explores projects that were never made and why. Gaghan said Leonardo DiCaprio was originally attached to “Blink” but “it never got off the ground.” The director explained how he eventually decided Ledger was a better fit for the role.

“I’d gotten to be very, very close with him instantly,” he said. “I just had a real connection with him that was kind of unusual and really special to me. I got really excited and I started seeing him as the main character. Once I started seeing that I couldn’t unsee it, and obviously it was very delicate in a way. Leo’s totally cool. I mean, obviously, he has a thousand choices, but in my mind it was a big deal.”

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“Blink” was never developed after Ledger’s death, though Gaghan said on the podcast he recently revisited the script and still thought it was “really good.”