ComunidadLB

In Memoriam: Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro
by Chris Carpenter

The film industry as well as Heath Ledger’s family members and fans around the world were shocked by the Australian actor’s sudden death on January 22nd, 2008. The 29-year old star had proven himself in just a few years to be a thoughtful, brave and truly talented performer, culminating in an Academy Award nomination for his heartbreaking performance in Brokeback Mountain.

Somewhat overshadowed by coverage of Ledger’s death but equally tragic was the death of actor Brad Renfro just a week before at the age of 25. While Renfro hadn’t become the household name that Ledger had and was never nominated for an Oscar, he was a similarly fearless performer and took on provocative roles in such disturbing films as Sleepers, Apt Pupil and Bully.

From an LGBT perspective, Renfro and Ledger can be regarded as connected by more than their risk-taking performances and untimely deaths. Neither actor was intimidated by the notion of playing characters of gay or questionable sexual orientation. Indeed, they actively pursued such roles, apparently sharing a common interest in society’s misunderstood, marginalized and abused members.

2005 was a watershed year for Ledger. Despite playing the famous heterosexual lover Casanova in the 2005 film of the same name, he was unexpectedly and amusingly fey as fairy-tale writer Jacob Grimm in Terry Gilliam’s largely forgettable The Brothers Grimm. Sporting granny glasses and a wispy smattering of facial hair, Ledger playfully turned the image of a summer-blockbuster superhero on its head. His co-star, Matt Damon, could have worn a dress and still been more butch.

Then came Brokeback Mountain. As ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, Ledger was a revelation. His character’s mumbled midwestern drawl, sexually-conflicted outbursts (”You made me this way, Jack Twist!”) and games of marital deception (played with real-life girlfriend Michelle Williams) resonated across the country as well as across generations of gay and bisexual men.

Ledger was honored with numerous nominations and awards for his performance, and likely would have won the Best Actor Oscar that year if not for Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s bravura turn as gay icon Truman Capote. To his credit, Ledger was a gracious loser. His Ennis, however, has been seen by more film viewers than Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote, and has most definitely moved and inspired more people.

We haven’t seen the last of Ledger on screen, thankfully. He plays Batman’s arch-nemesis the Joker in this summer’s The Dark Knight. Advance word, including from Ledger himself, is that his is a disturbing, no-holds-barred take on the psychotic villain. But the Joker has always been a flamboyant, borderline-gay character, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ledger’s performance pushes the supervillain over the line.

Brad Renfro was discovered by talent scouts when he was twelve years old, and was subsequently hired to play the central role of a boy being hunted by mobsters in the 1994 film adaptation of John Grisham’s The Client, directed by the openly gay Joel Schumacher. He may have had Susan Sarandon and a scenery-chewing Tommy Lee Jones as co-stars, but it was newcomer Renfro who kept viewers riveted.

A series of dark movies in which Renfro played a put-upon or outright-abused character followed. In 1996’s Sleepers, also based on a best-selling book, he was one of several teenagers physically and sexually abused while in jail who grow up to take revenge on their abusers. But it was Renfro’s performance in Apt Pupil, released in 1998, that raised more than a few eyebrows at the time.

Adapted from a Stephen King novella and directed by openly gay Bryan Singer, Apt Pupil starred Renfro as a lonely high school student who discovers one of his neighbors (played by gay icon Ian McKellen) is a Nazi war criminal. Rather than do the reputable thing and report the Nazi to the authorities, Renfro’s character blackmails him into divulging his darkest concentration camp memories.

While Apt Pupil was filming, it was reported that a scene in which Renfro watches his schoolmates shower in the locker room had been shot without proper genital coverage for the under-age actors. In response to the outcry that resulted, Singer and the studio re-shot the scene with adult actors and no full-frontal nudity. Still, the sequence and the film strongly imply that Renfro’s character is homosexual and involved in a twisted homo-erotic relationship with his neo-Nazi neighbor.

After such controversy, one would have expected Renfro to take on a “safer” role. Instead, he joined the cast of provocateur Larry Clark’s movie Bully. Based on a true story, Renfro played the central role of Marty who is viciously bullied by his supposed best friend (a terrifying performance by then-newcomer Nick Stahl). Marty isn’t the only teenager victimized, but Stahl’s character takes special pleasure in beating, kicking, burning and even sodomizing him. While he initially resists turning against Stahl, misguidedly believing that his sadistic friend truly loves him, Marty eventually leads his friends in a brutal revolt.

While none of the characters Renfro portrayed were openly gay, neither were those played by Ledger. However, both actors consistently captured with extraordinary dexterity the inherent tension and drama that come with the desperate longing to be loved. I feel that LGBT filmgoers in particular have lost two courageous allies in our struggle for acceptance. At the same time, I am grateful to Ledger and Renfro for the artistic choices they made. May they live in our memories, and may they rest in peace.

Chris Carpenter is a film critic and hospice chaplain residing in Long Beach. He is the current chairman of Comunidad.