Fuck, Heath Ledger Too?

You can't help but immediately think overdose when you hear the particulars, what little they be, on Heath Ledger's death. It really, really fucking sucks that another young actor I like has met death under 30.

It's not that I've ever really been wowed by this kid's movies, any of them, really, 'cept maybe Brokeback but that movie's not as brilliant as everyone keeps yammering it is. But I loved the fact that he spoke out a couple years back and said how he'd been "manufactured" into a star by the film co's and that he wasn't ready for the acting that they pushed him into. He eventually put the brakes on, and the result was more stuff like Monster's Ball and Brokeback. He seemed really earnest about developing the craft of acting, and seemed so unburdened by bullshit, unlike many of his peers.

I think I felt about him sort of how I feel about a music act whose CD totally misses the mark and all I know is, they're just not feeling it right. Maybe another day, another time, they could really rock it out. I file 'em under "see live sometime" I kinda always thought he had something potentially "wow" in his repertoire one day, and he just had to have that happen.

But he's dead. Didn't see that coming, and, dude, right on the heels of playing The Joker? There's a "my bad" of unbelievable proportions, if it is something dumb like an overdose. (Overdoses are such a stupid way to go. It's why I've never, ever considered doing anything harder than mushrooms, and haven't touched anything other than pot for years. First thing to go is judgment, so doing a hard drug, god, well, naturally you're going to misjudge one day.)

This is kind of like finding out the high school hall monitor's a crack dealer or something. I have a feeling this will turn out to be some freak medical thing no one saw coming. At least I hope so. It'd be nice if all the fond things people say about this kid can go on being said. Geez, the whole dead-young-actor thing's been done to death already the last week or so, thanks to the, again, early demise of Brad Renfro, who was so awesome in The Client and never lived up to his promise.

Jesus. Fuckin' full moons, hey? Weird. I still remember Kurt Cobain's death, and River Phoenix's, where I was and all. They were both so huge for me, as far as dead young celebrities go. I think this is the first young celebrity's death in a long time that has surprised me. Ah, well. Better luck next time, kid. Blah.