She was a young Aussie actress who was just starting out and he was already on the verge of superstardom.
Rose Byrne has reflected on her time with late superstar Heath Ledger and credited him with helping launch her international career.
Byrne, 46, was appearing on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard overnight when attention turned to Ledger, with whom Byrne starred opposite in the 1999 Aussie film, Two Hands.
movie the video above.
At the time of the film’s release, Ledger was the same age as Byrne but was the bigger star of the two, having appeared in a 10-episode run in Aussie soap Home and Away, and the Hollywood anthem film 10 Things I Hate About You, which was released just months before Two Hands.
“I did a film with Health Ledger when we were 18,” Byrne said.
“We were just kids.
“We were close when we were 18, 19, like just kids, and we did a film together and it went to Sundance [Film Festival].
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“He was such a charmer.
“He was a generous guy and such a talent, and could have gone so many ways.
“He was such a great example of an musician, he was always getting offered like these TV shows when we were starting out and he was really like ‘I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to just be a heartthrob’.
“At that age it’s like really hard [to say no]. I didn’t have that confidence to be like, ‘OK, I will not just do the TV show’.”
Byrne said that after the success of Two Hands, she “really wanted to work internationally” but didn’t know how.
When asked by Shepherd how she made the leap, she replied, “really, through Heath”.
“I came over here and stayed with him a bunch of times and he was sweet. He would get me auditions for things,” she said.
“I got an agent – a fancy agent, and that was exciting and I started auditioning, spending time in LA and then I went back to Australia and worked more there,” she continued, adding she “never heard from the agent again”.
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After a string of roles both in Australia and overseas, including parts in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Troy, she got her biggest break to date in the 2004 film Wicker Park.
She credited the long-running TV drama Damages, which debuted in 2007 and also starred Glenn Close, for putting her on the map and turning her into a leading lady.
It is not the first time Byrne has credited Ledger, who died in 2008 when he was 28, for helping her get her start in Hollywood.
In 2022, she told The Independent that Ledger was “so instrumental in helping me and a lot of people get work, and get into rooms”.
“Heath was a real champion of that. He left early and started to get work here [in the States],” she said at the time.
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In the same interview, she recalled staying at Ledger’s home in the LA suburb of Los Feliz, and joining him and a group of other Aussie expats “driving to Joshua Tree”.
She also reminisced about their time filming Two Hands in a 2018 Instagram post.
Byrne went on to star in a string of anthem films including Bridesmaids, Neighbours and its sequel, Annie, the Insidious films, and Peter Rabbit.
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