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Heath Ledger and cast discuss "A Knight's Tale"

© Heather Wadowski

Australia seems to be hotter than ever in the public's eye with a crop of Australian actors finally being noted in Hollywood. Whether it be "Memento"'s Guy Pearce and "Gladiator"'s Russell Crowe, or The Crocodile Hunter and "Crocodile Dundee" star Paul Hogan himself, Australian actors seem to be more successful than ever in American cinema. However, despite competition that includes veterans of the acting business and recent Oscar winners, the most talked about Australian actor at the moment is only a couple weeks past the ripe old age of 22.

Heath Ledger, who most recently starred opposite Mel Gibson in last year's "The Patriot," is finally stepping out of the co-star limelight to star in his latest feature film, "A Knight's Tale." The film, which has Ledger doing everything from riding a horse to jousting, is just one of many projects keeping the young actor busy. When Ledger sat down at a recent interview to discuss "A Knight's Tale" one could easily tell how ragged and hard-worked he is-- but it is this hard-work that is skyrocketing him to stardom while his competition is left in the dark.

""The Patriot" helped my professional life emencely," Ledger says, pushing a strand of his blonde hair away from his face. "I have worked non-stop for 18 months since being cast in that film."

Although Ledger is still learning to adjust to his newly found fame in America, he insists that his fame is even harder to adjust to in Australia. With his little sister finally reaching the age where she can distinguish the fact that her big brother is starring in a film-- and finally reaching the point where she has the capability to question why he is in a film-- Ledger finds himself answering more and more questions each time he returns to the land down under.

"My fame is definitely on a larger scale back home," he says. "Everytime I go back things are so different. My first visit I was co-starring in "10 Things I Hate About You," my next visit "The Patriot" was just opening and now I'm starring in "A Knight's Tale," but my family goes through big changes as well. My four-year-old sister has gone from crawling during my first visit to walking the next visit, and last time I visited she could talk and understood to an extent my fame. It's just so much at once."

So much at once is right. Not only did Ledger have the pressure of carrying a film on his shoulders with "A Knight's Tale," Ledger also spent months jousting with his co-stars, riding horses and basically everything else it takes to be believable as a wanna-be knight. Despite all this training though, Heath didn't do all the fight scenes in the film-- often a stunt double was used to protect Heath and his co-star/jousting partner, Rufus Sewell.