Terry Gilliam Defends Heath Ledger

20 January 2009

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Director Terry Gilliam has hit back at reports that his friend Heath Ledger was experimenting with drugs when he died of an accidental overdose twelve months ago claiming that he was 'clean'

Ledger died from an overdose of prescription drugs he was taking to try and cure insomnia, but many suggested he was on much stronger narcotics - and the speculation continues as the anniversary of the tragedy approaches.

But Gilliam, who was working with Ledger on his final film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus when the star died, is desperate to set the record straight.

He tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "The insomnia was really getting to him. He'd arrive (on set) in the morning looking really shattered... (but) he'd just whip the thing up into another gear very quickly and off we'd go.

"They (media) tried to hard to pin (drug abuse) on him, but they couldn't because Heath was as clean as you could be.

"We know about the pills, but he had stopped smoking. Marijuana was no longer in his life... He wasn't drinking. Nothing. This was a body that had cleansed itself for over a year of anything."

Despite Ledger passing away during the filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Gilliam continued with the film as a trinute to his late friend and Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all stepping in to help complete the project.

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