Heath Ledger suggested David Bowie’s Golden Years to director in famed dance sequence from A Knight’s Tale
Heath Ledger suggested the use of David Bowie’s Golden Years in the 2001 movie A Knight’s Tale, the film’s director Brian Helgeland said Tuesday.
Helgeland chat with Vulture Tuesday, which marked the 20th anniversary of the film’s release. In the medieval action film, the late actor, who died at 28 in 2008 from a drug overdose, played the leading role of ambitious peasant William Thatcher.
The film’s dance sequence was slated to be set to the 1975 song Get Down Tonight by KC and the Sunshine Band, but Helgeland said Ledger sought to persuade him to use the 1976 Bowie song instead.
New details: The late Heath Ledger suggested the use of David Bowie’s Golden Years in the 2001 movie A Knight’s Tale, the film’s director Brian Helgeland said Tuesday. Ledger was seen in the film, which came out 20 years ago Tuesday, with co-star Shannyn Sossamon
‘When Heath wanted to sell you on something, you could tell in a second,’ Ledger said. ‘He would assume this kind of boyishness to him; he’d become nine years old, like out of a Dickens story, like the Artful Dodger.’
Helgeland said that Ledger ‘got this big grin on his face’ as he compared the musical tempos between the songs.
‘Heath got this big grin on his face,’ Helgeland said. ‘He goes, “It’s the same tempo. It’s going to work.” He goes, “It’s the same tempo. It’s going to work.”‘
Helgeland said Ledger urged him to skip rehearsals for the day so the cast and crew could perfect the performance to the Bowie song.
Ledger and director Brian Helgeland were seen on the set of the 2001 motion picture
Background: The film’s dance sequence was slated to be set to the 1975 song Get Down Tonight by KC and the Sunshine Band, but Helgeland said Ledger sought to persuade him to use the 1976 Bowie song
‘He said, “Don’t come to rehearsal today. Let us get it right and then come down. We’ll do both of them and you decide,”‘ Helgeland said. ‘He was like, “It’s so inescapable that it should be Golden Years that there’s no way you can disagree with me.”‘
Helgeland said Ledger ‘just laid it all out like a legal case’ in his appeal for the musical shift.
The film’s choreographer Stuart Hopps told the outlet in an email that the change complemented the motion picture.
Flashback: The movie made $117 millon worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo
‘At the time, I thought that the Bowie choice was a good one and although the dance patterns remained much the same,’ Hopps said. ‘The choice of music meant I could give the dance routine a more modern feel and get the actors to let go more and swing more.’
Helgeland said the leading man had an infectious presence on set that charmed colleagues.
‘Everyone just fell in love with him – guys, girls, everybody. Just everyone loved him, and he loved you back.’
The film, which co-starred Shanynn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Paul Bettany and Alan Tudyk, took in $117 millon worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.