The Hollywood system sort of uses everybody who comes into it, and it also pays them back. And some people... that deal works out really well for, and other people, like, don't realise what deal they made. Two young and talented actors ` the Hollywood VIP and the down under outsider. River Phoenix had, like, this natural glow. Heath Ledger had this amazing combination of someone that seemed very mature and wise and the kind of enthusiasm you don't see. Both stars died from tragic overdoses. Heath Ledger's death was really shocking news. A young man cut down in his prime. River Phoenix was on the rise, and we lost him before we were able to really see his greatest work. Born a decade apart, these two stars would never meet, but in many ways their stories mirror each other. Both actors died from deadly drug cocktails ` River on the cold pavement of Sunset Boulevard and Heath alone in his bed. They both used drugs to escape the pressures of Hollywood and the demons that haunted them. It was the darkest time of his life, and the darkest role of his life. Within the Hollywood system, both men encounter destructive influences that ultimately tear their lives apart. Neither will live to complete their final film. He didn't have a death wish. He was not trying to destroy himself. In fact, he was trying to clean himself up. The road to fame and fortune is paved with influences good and bad. Find out what leads some stars to fall under the influence. Copyright Able 2018 River Phoenix was a big-time star out of the gate with the film Stand By Me. His posters soon found a place on the bedroom walls of teenage girls around the world. Immediately, there was something captivating about River on-screen. You know, the Sean Penns and the Robert Downey Jrs, I mean, they did great work, but they were very loud, especially in their performances, and there was something a little bit more subtle about River. And everyone who would meet him would recognise, like, even as a kid, that he had an extraordinary charisma, an extraordinary degree of self-possession. River was more than a teenage heartthrob. He landed his first Oscar nomination at just 18 for his performance in Running On Empty, sending him on his way to being an in-demand leading man. Hollywood always wants that James Dean. They always want the lead actor, who the appearance is very beautiful, but there's something behind that that feels a little bit more mysterious, a little introverted. River was a star unlike a lot of his other peers. He seemed to care about things beyond his life on screen and stardom. But seemingly out of nowhere, River's life and career were cut short. The news of his death by drug overdose made headlines around the world. It came as a complete shock when River Phoenix died of an overdose, because, for many of us, we would've never even thought of him as somebody who used drugs. He certainly was on the rise, and we lost him just before we were able to really see his greatest work. How did this happen? How did a healthy, young actor in the prime of his life die so spectacularly of a drug overdose? The clues may have been there all along. To unearth the influences River Phoenix may have been under, we have to go back to the beginning. River was born in Oregon to Arlyn and John Bottom. The eldest of five, River had three sisters ` Rain, Summer and Liberty ` and a younger brother, Joaquin ` also a future star. River's bohemian persona came from his hippie parents and his unconventional childhood. River Phoenix's family weren't super materialistic. I mean, they didn't own a home. They sort of lived kind of like bohemians, like gypsies, travelling around in a van, not being super attached to materialistic things. River's parents were kind of aimless spiritual seekers. They were looking for sort of, like, more meaning in their life. They wandered into a Children of God meeting. They were receptive to it walking in. Children of God was a fundamentalist Christian group that was founded in the late '60s in Huntington Beach California by a disgruntled former protestant minister who wanted to bring in marginalised hippies of those days. People were disillusioned. People weren't satisfied with the universities, with religious instruction, with the government. People wanted to get back to the basics of life. The cult sought out vulnerable people, who it would learn to spot in a crowd. The ones who were paying attention, the ones who would stop and talk to you and respond to you were sheep. I was one of the sheep; that's how I know. For River's family, Children of God seemed to offer everything they were looking for ` a place to raise their young, growing family. With River and Rain already in tow, Joaquin and Liberty would be born into the cult. We were told from one moment to the next, 'Pack, and you're going somewhere.' Sometimes you weren't even told where you were going. They spent about a year in Puerto Rico, and they spent time in Mexico, and then they ended up in Venezuela. You know, on the surface, the cult seemed like a safe place for families to live and pray. The reality is that they were living in squalor. The children, especially River, were expected to busk in town so that they could actually feed the family. At an early age, River Phoenix was the breadwinner in his family, busking on the streets for loose change. They were singing songs about Jesus and trying to convert people, but they're also trying to get coins at the airport or, you know, the hotels for Westerners, because if they get enough, the family gets to eat that night. That's a lot of responsibility for a small kid to know the quality of your performances that day determines whether you and your brothers and sisters get to eat. When a young child is all of a sudden the breadwinner, this can cause a lot of pressure. The child becomes used to being the caretaker, used to putting other people first before themselves. So that need is supressed and often does come out in a way more reckless way, in a way more extreme way in adulthood. One of the biggest aspects of a cult is mind control, and you control people's minds by what you give them to read and hear. And this was sort of` You're supposed to do this, teaching your kids that your own thoughts are evil, are wrong. Don't think; just obey what you're told. This may have had an influence on River Phoenix. In later years, River Phoenix spoke out on how Children of God ruined people's lives. Children were often very severely, physically, corporally punished. Everybody was considered a parent, and if you saw a child misbehaving, the adult had the license to punish any child that they perceived as being disrespectful. Living in a cult, it's about control, power. As a result, he probably felt helpless, even powerless. It's interesting to see how the pendulum swings into adulthood where River is free but takes it to the extreme. Children of God became a free-love cult that encouraged sex among all members, including children. River, for the most part, did not speak about this background himself, but there was once in the '90s when a reporter asked him, 'Was there anything you did earlier than you wish you had?' The answer was 'yes', you know, like, 'make love'. He said the first time was when he was just 4 years old. The sexual contact between children was encouraged to supposedly give them a healthy attitude towards it. In this highly sexually-charged environment, children were witness to disturbing practises like wife-swapping and the now infamous 'flirty fishing'. The cult sought out vulnerable people, encouraging particularly the women in the group dressing seductively, meeting men and talking, ostensibly to talk about God and Jesus and the bible. This was called 'flirty fishing' ` be a fisherman for God. And in some other parts of the world, the women of the cult were, essentially, hired out as prostitutes. It was built on the sexual exploitation of women. River Phoenix's parents became more uncomfortable with the sexual direction the cult was taking. In my practice, what I've seen is people who have childhood trauma that is unresolved, and they have not gotten treatment, they turn to drugs for solace; they turn to drugs for some sort of escape. It seems to me that could have been what happened to River Phoenix. Childhood sexual abuse is a very heavy thing for anyone to carry around ` a trauma that is going to be there for the rest of your life. And when you see River as an adult, you see someone who is trying to blot out his consciousness, in a lot of ways, and you can't help but think that one reason for that is the trauma of what happened to him when he was a kid. Disillusioned with the cult and unsettled by the practice of flirty fishing, River's parents decide to cut ties with the Children of God and flee with their kids River, Rain, Joaquin and Liberty in the late '70s. Escape would not be easy. People were terrified. People said, 'I'm afraid to leave. God will kill my children.' Anyone can fall victim to a bad influence. At age 8, River Phoenix's family were plotting an escape from a dangerous cult. Years later, Heath Ledger planned his escape from a broken home in Australia. Both moves will lead these future actors down paths they never could've foreseen. You were so controlled that this was the only reality. If you leave, you're a backslider, and God's gonna kill you or kill your children. And they would even say these things. 'You can't leave.' And people were terrified. I mean, this is the mind control of a cult. So you'd have to get over that psychological barrier, and you'd have to plan some escape, have some money that you've secreted away. To the best of my knowledge, the Phoenix family befriended a Catholic priest, who was very sympathetic to their plea to help them leave and, apparently, arranged for them to get on a cargo boat. Reintegrating into society for adults and children, it posed some very serious problems. A lot of people turned to drugs, particularly the younger people, so it's not surprising that River entered into, uh, drug abuse. The family changes their last name to Phoenix and intend to rise from the ashes of their old life to reinvent themselves outside of the cult. Now in the US, the family realised their children's talents could be put to use in a new way. River and his sister, Rain, keep performing. Now they're not busking for change; they're entering talent shows. The family is sort of, like, at loose ends. Things aren't really going anywhere for them. And they figure out pretty quickly, like, this is the dynamic thing that the family has. And so they start thinking, 'What do we do with this? Let's try to get them to Hollywood.' River appeared to have the most potential at this stage, but his siblings were not far behind. Joaquin would later find his own place amongst Hollywood royalty. Their parents sent the kids out on the street to sing about God and busk for money as a deliberate way to support themselves and promote their religious messages, as seen in this video, with their matching outfits and rehearsed choreography. It's almost like a mini, religious, sort of, Jackson 5-type routine. The Phoenix family, they always had intermingled motivation. This was a way to sort of spread the messages of what they believe, and, at the same time, it was if he becomes famous, he'll make money, and the family will be able to pay the rent. As the oldest child, River is once again positioned as the breadwinner of the family. The minute that River Phoenix arrives in Los Angeles, he immediately lands an agent and starts getting work. Pretty quickly in Hollywood, the economic roles of the family remain upside down. River is taking care of his whole family. He's able to support them all, but there's still this pressure on him to be the breadwinner, to produce, which I can imagine, at such a young age, is a lot for one person. In 1985, River was cast in Stand By Me. The cast was four boys, and they were all kind of showbiz kids ` capped teeth, acting lessons. And then you have River, the scruffy hippy who shows up, and he's learning on the fly as he films Stand By Me. To put it into perspective, he has no formal training. Immediately, the pressure is on him to be able to deliver. There's one scene by a campfire. He's the bad kid, got in trouble for stealing the milk money, and he gave it back. The adult he gave it back to busted him anyway and took the money for herself. With River struggling with the scene, the director introduces him to a form of method acting, allowing him to dig deep to find the character. Rob Reiner wasn't getting the emotion he wanted out of River Phoenix, so he said, like, 'Was there a time in your life where an adult betrayed you? 'You don't have to tell me what it is.' And River goes away, and, clearly, there was a time in his life when an adult betrayed him. There was something deep that he could tap into, cos he came back and gave this just heartbreaking on-camera performance. The seeds of who he becomes as an actor is Rob Reiner telling him to remember a moment of betrayal by the campfire. If River was suffering emotionally, I think that the method could be a way for him to escape his life, because his life actually stops, and he can fully immerse into this character and almost get freedom in that. The downfall is, though, when the character stops and you go back to real life, it can almost feel overwhelming with all these unresolved issues. It's kind of like the summer of River's life. For the first time, he's with peers who are actors. He's running around with the other kids in the movie, and they're throwing furniture in the pool, and they're, like, gimmicking the video games at the hotel. He also tries pot for the first time. After his breakout success in Stand By Me, River was in demand and stars in a series of career-making roles alongside big Hollywood names. He also begins dating his co-star, Martha Plimpton. At just age 18, River is nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Running On Empty. Once River became established, and he's making real money after Stand By Me; he was nominated for an Oscar; he starts getting significant Hollywood cheques. And he ended up buying a property in Florida that became a hippie compound for the family ` a fundamental change from before when they never knew where the next dollar was coming from. After purchasing the ranch for his family, River may have felt free from the obligations to take care of them, so he could finally reclaim those lost teenage years. His parents are not ones to set many rules or boundaries, and within this very permissive environment, he's left to his own devices. River has taken up certain habits. He is now regularly drinking and smoking pot, as he continues to build his career and work his way towards being leading man material. In Stand By Me, with River Phoenix, we see the possibility of a leading man. By My Own Private Idaho, it's pretty clear that River Phoenix has 'leading man' in him for years to come. My Own Private Idaho is directed by Gus Van Sant. It stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as gay hustlers. River Phoenix, at a pivotal point in his career, chooses to take on a gay, narcoleptic street hustler at a time when no one's doing gay films. The people around River and Keanu didn't want them to do the movie. 'You're gonna turn off all your fans.' Like, 'It's a big mistake.' It was in that choice that he was able to show diversity and complexity of his acting ability. Through his use of method acting, the film My Own Private Idaho marks a major turning point in River's relationship with drugs. Method acting may have given River access to the darker parts of himself, which gave him, really, permission to act that out in real life. And in so doing, like, part of throwing himself into it was to try heroin for the first time. (TENSE MUSIC) He's doing it because it's right for the character, who's, like, sort of a street kid who was using. And once he tried heroin, it was the answer to the problems that he had probably been experiencing inside. And once you let the beast out of the cage, it's really hard to put it back in. And so he walked away from it damaged, with the beginning of a drug addiction. He throws himself so deeply into, first, the performance, that it's hard for him to sort of shed the character afterwards; and second, using drugs. You can't just turn that off at the end of the movie. River's behaviour and drug use continues long after the cameras stop rolling. When My Own Private Idaho rolls out, River's not yet fully detached himself from the character. He comes to Toronto's Film Festival, and he arrives incoherent, sort of rambling on. The industry starts to suspect that something's wrong with River. River is unwashed, hair matted, looking unhealthy, and people are saying, 'This looks more like drug use than method acting.' Martha Plimpton would say that she would get phone calls from River where it's the ramblings of, like, a stoned person. Martha Plimpton admits to breaking up with River Phoenix over his drug use and his self-destructive behaviour. He would get clean for a while, really struggle for a while. It was sad. River is struggling with his addictions. Meanwhile, he's being pressured by his father to leave the business, as he worries the Hollywood machine is eating his son alive. As River's star is rising, his father, John Phoenix, is feeling increasingly uncomfortable with it. He can see River getting into the Hollywood machine, and he's very mistrustful of the growing spotlight on River. River promises his father he will leave the industry after his next film, Dark Blood. In the end, River would never complete this film. By examining the influences celebrities are under, we can uncover clues as to why their lives often end tragically. Haunted by his past, River struggles with a growing drug problem and the Hollywood machine that won't let him slow down ` a vicious cycle that will also trap Heath Ledger years later. The scene in LA in the late '80s and early '90s, there were parties all the time. And all kinds of drugs were a big part of that. It was a busy time for River. He had been releasing, on average, a movie a year, and had more lined up. He's coming into his own as an actor. He's becoming an actual, like adult star. And River has come into himself, trying to chase his own dreams. He has a rock band he wants to get started, be in great movies. He wants the world. And that world is becoming ever more dangerous. His drug use gets heavier after My Own Private Idaho. He has drug buddies. He has people that he can sort of like go and free-base cocaine with. He's very good at putting up a public front about it. That threw off a lot of people to think that there was anything really wrong with him. Before River made his last movie, John, his father, begged him, 'Get out of the business. Stop being in Hollywood.' And River said, 'Well, I promised to be in this movie. I promised to be in these two movies after. 'After I make those three movies, that's it; I'm done.' The fact that River's father had said publically, 'I feel like Hollywood is eating my son alive,' tells me that his son was really suffering. He was very worried, to the point that he wanted his son to quit Hollywood altogether. In 1993, River Phoenix is filming Dark Blood. This is important, because it's the first time he's taking on a lead character as a villain. River Phoenix throws himself into this role, wiping away his own personality and substituting the character. It's his own version of method acting. But he's not studied with Stella Adler or anything. It's his cobbled-together, 'Here's how I become somebody else.' So you've unleashed this Pandora's box, likely connected to your own pain. But how do you then go back to your normal? River is doing it in a way where he doesn't sort of know how to handle what he's tapping into in his own personality and psyche. River was able to stay clean for the first two months of the filming. But by the time he got back to Los Angeles to continue filming, he fell off the wagon. I think that, as your drug addiction spirals and continues, what happens is you end up all by yourself. Doesn't matter how many people are around you, you are all alone. At the end of the day, it always comes down do you and your drug, and that's it. As far as we can tell, he went on a huge bender. He's supposed to be meeting with directors, but he's too screwed up to get out of bed and get to where he's supposed to be. The day that River Phoenix dies, he arrives on the set of Dark Blood, as the director puts it, sort of seems out of body. And the minute they say 'action', River Phoenix goes right into character with no problems. It seems that possibly River was a functioning user, because he had the ability to have this hard-core partying lifestyle, and then was able to really snap himself back and get into the zone, and that's why people didn't have a clue how bad his addiction had gotten and how much he was possibly suffering. He kind of pulls himself together because his brother and sister are visiting. Joaquin and Rain wanted to go to the Viper Room. It's the new hot nightclub in town, it's been open only a few months. He wants to have, like, a quiet night in the hotel room. He's trying to, like, keep himself together. Samantha, his girlfriend, is there as well. She'll get them in, and at the last second, he's like, 'No, no, no, hold the elevator. I'm coming.' And he grabs his guitar, and he goes with them. It's the hottest nightclub in Los Angeles. It's owned by Johnny Depp. It's on Sunset Boulevard. You can't just walk into the Viper Room. River shows up at the Viper Room. They get the whole group in. River, like, is in his element. He knows these people. And this is when he starts to indulge. It's a dark nightclub. Most of the people there are, to some degree, messed up on something. A lot of different things are happening, so people have different, conflicting memories of it. The story that I found, a guitarist friend of River's gave him a cup and he said, 'Drink this; it'll make you feel fabulous.' Throws the whole thing back. It was heroin and cocaine, also known as a speedball. The high of a speedball is you get the immediate rush from the cocaine, and then you get the depressant qualities from the heroin. A speedball would be fatal because it speeds up the heart and slows down the heart at the same time. And, pretty quickly, his body reacts poorly to it. He's not doing well, and they get him out of there and on to the sidewalk. River is on the sidewalk, and he's dying. The people he's with ` his brother, his sister, his girlfriend ` what they should have done was call 911 right away and get paramedics there. As River is dying, there are eight minutes that happen where his body is starting to convulse. And, really, nothing is happening. Part of it is just being young and overwhelmed. And everybody's in shock and in denial, which often comes with addictions. Like, 'He's fine. Any moment now, he'll snap out of it.' There's a pay phone on the corner, and Joaquin, on the phone with 911, trying to get an ambulance to show up, shattered ` his brother is dying in front of him. They do promptly get the paramedics there. They're trying to restart the heart. They give him a shot. They get him in the ambulance. They get him to the hospital and they work on him for about an hour before he's declared legally dead. River walks into the Viper Room, clearly, as one of Hollywood's biggest stars. In the end, he leaves as one of Hollywood's biggest casualties. Officially, River died of acute multiple drug intoxication. Toxicology reports show high concentration of cocaine and heroin in his blood. The Hollywood system sort of uses everybody who comes into it, and it also pays them back. And some people that deal works out really well for, and other people, like, don't realise what deal they made. I think, if River Phoenix wasn't a star, that phone call would have been made earlier. After River died, his family decided that they didn't want to pursue and investigation into exactly what had happened. I think there is a lot of Hollywood self-interest. People are always just trying to, like, get the next project made and hope for the best. A lot of people were at the Viper Room that night and saw who was giving River Phoenix drugs, but nobody's ever gone on the record about who it was. River, ultimately, couldn't overcome the temptations of Hollywood. It's a complex and unforgiving machine that doesn't stop for anyone, full of users and abusers, A-listers and enablers. Fame and stardom can be a dark place. River Phoenix was this amazingly gifted actor. You could see that he had something special, and he had ambition. There was this special light to him that got extinguished. It's a loss to all of us. River Phoenix was a star whose light went out too soon. He spent his life and career under the influence. Be it Children of God, a raw, untapped approach to acting that led him down the path to drugs, or the Hollywood machine that stops for no one, River was simply unable to conquer his demons. 15 years later, another star burns out too soon. Like River, he also battled demons and lost. Like River Phoenix, Heath Ledger began his acting career at a young age. Born in Perth, Australia, in 1979 to mother Sally and father Kim, Heath's first role, at age 10, was in a school production of the little boy who never grew up, Peter Pan. At the same time, Heath's home life was thrown into disarray when his parents divorced. Childhood trauma is different for everyone. It is something that changes you. And, as a result, people go to all lengths to numb the pain, whether its drugs and many other addictive behaviours. After high-school graduation, Heath's free spirit took him travelling across the country. In 1992, he scored a starring role in an Australian TV series, and soon made the jump to the silver screen. Heath Ledger worked on a lot of television shows. He worked on things like Ship to Shore, Home and Away. But he was striking, as a young man, and I think that's probably what got him noticed. At 19, Heath left Australia and his family behind for his Hollywood dream. There are reports that initially his parents did not support their son's choice to be an actor. The disconnect with his parents, plus a family history of depression, could have contributed to what was to come. When Heath Ledger first arrived in Hollywood, I don't think the impression was much different from that of any other hot, young commodity. And he was celebrated as the new hunk on the block. It wasn't until later that his commitment to the craft was apparent. The first thing that everybody noticed him for was 10 Things I Hate About You. He became quite a big success after that. At one point, Heath Ledger said that he wanted to take the blond out of his career. He wanted to go away from the kind of hunky teen heart-throb roles into something that would be considered more substantial, I guess. Heath Ledger made a series of films, A Knight's Tale, which made him kind of a heart-throb. After that, though, Monster's Ball is the movie that people, I think, really looked at him and said, 'Oh, he's a very serious actor now.' However, it is Ledger's role in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain that solidifies his place as a star, earns him an Oscar nomination, and leads him to love and a family. Heath Ledger's appearance in Brokeback Mountain was applauded and significant. It was a such a brave, crazy brave thing to do. Just playing a man who was romantically or sexually involved with another man was brave at the time. He delivers a performance here, one that made people really stand up and notice, 'This guy knows what he's doing.' It was on the set of Brokeback Mountain where Heath meets Michelle Williams. Lots of actors fall for their co-stars. Heath Ledger was no different. Michelle Williams came along on the set of Brokeback Mountain. They fell in love on the set. By the time the movie was over, I think she was pregnant with Matilda Rose, their daughter. So certainly, from the outside, it looked like a whirlwind romance. This was a period of stability in Heath's life that would be short-lived. And then entered the Joker. Heath's greatest professional challenge was taking on the iconic role of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He transformed himself into the part of a sociopathic clown. It was a career-defining performance, and one that Heath wouldn't live long enough to see released. What happened to Heath Ledger, that he would end up dead in bed at home alone at only 28 years old? Heath Ledger was a great guy. Damaged goods, though. I mean, damaged, damaged goods. The path to this tragic end is hard to find, as it starts inside Heath's own head. Heath Ledger was extraordinarily picky about the roles that he took, to the point of being considered difficult, because he turns everything down. In reality, it comes out later that he was not really confident in his abilities to be able to do some of these parts, and so he would turn things down, just saying, 'I'm not ready. I'm scared. Heath wasn't prepared to deal with everything that came with his work. He suffered from anxiety and struggled with his rising fame and increased attention. I think it would be natural to assume that all actors want a huge amount of recognition. But there comes a line that gets crossed quite often, where the recognition starts to dig into your life. He wanted to have a normal life but still be able to do normal work. After Brokeback Mountain, the praise that came from it and the Oscar nomination, he felt too disrupted, I think, by the fame, by the attention. So he said, 'If this is what it's like making a great, successful film, I never want to do another.' I think it was just a level of attention, or feverish attention of focus that was intolerable to him. That was where, as someone said, they thought a dark corner was turned. Influences come in many forms. To fall under them can often lead to a tragic end. Heath Ledger was under the influence of anxiety, depression, and was uncomfortable with the baggage that came with celebrity. But his talent made fame inevitable. With that fame came a need to escape. I think Heath Ledger was definitely more introverted. He was more quiet and got his energy from being alone. Often introverts will tell me that they blame themselves, like, 'I should enjoy fame.' 'Why can't I enjoy the limelight?' And they blame themselves, and it impacts their self-confidence. In the end, self-blame often will lead to depressed mood, depressed mood leads to depressive behaviours, reaching for substances in order to feel good. It becomes this vicious cycle, where it causes more anxiety, and then sometimes destructive behaviours to tame that anxiety. As the expectations for Heath and his career grew, so did the pressure. That, coupled, with his anxiety, resulted in panic attacks. A panic attack is intense terror that can only last a few minutes. It's like a spike of fear. And a lot of my clients tell me that they feel like they're having a heart attack. They often end up in emerge, thinking, 'I'm having a heart attack,' and then they go home being told they had a panic attack. When people have panic attacks, even if there is no stressor, they're worried about when the next one could come. It could be around the corner. So for someone who is in the spotlight, it would be petrifying that it could happen at the most inopportune time. The fact that he was having them in meetings tells me that he was so overwhelmed, but not dealing with this overwhelm. So what happens is, if you ignore it and ignore it and ignore it, your emotions, your body then says, 'Wait a minute. I just can't take this any more.' Heath's family had a history of depression, so his own battle came from the cards he had been dealt. His choice to mix prescription medications could be seen as an attempt to hide the demons he's running from. Heath Ledger was prescribed Valium and Zoloft. Zoloft would be for his depression. Valium, on the other hand, that's generally given for anti-anxiety and also as an anti-convulsive. Mixing the two can be very, very detrimental. When you don't actually deal with these negative feelings, unresolved issues and negative thoughts, and you are taking a pill, what happens is it's a Band-Aid solution. If you don't get the help that you need, it's very common that your behaviour becomes more destructive and more reckless, and you're just reaching out for more. In the flurry of activity, which must have been dizzying, Heath Ledger made the decision to move not only out of Los Angeles, but also to sell his home in Australia and move to New York City. In New York, Heath's turbulent relationship with the press continued, but was now fuelled by his desire to protect his daughter. Nothing makes you more self-conscious than being out in public for the first time as a father or a mother, with a child. You are everybody's problem, everybody's responsibility. Everybody's got some advice for you. If you're famous, I can't even imagine what that'd be like. It'd be exponentially tougher. Ledger's discomfort in the public eye was thought to be a source of tension in his relationship with Michelle. He was a dedicated father, but rumours ran rampant that the couple were having personal problems. And there were allegations of cheating and excessive partying on his part. It seemed as if there were two Heath Ledgers. The one Heath Ledger was the dedicated artist, the craftsman who was devoted to his work. The other Heath Ledger, the sort of after-hours Heath Ledger who wore a Trilby hat and was out at fancy nightspots, canoodling on banquettes. Heath surrounded himself with yes-men and enablers who fed his destructive behaviour. I was a celebrity VIP host. I was the person who connected the dots for the celebrity to the party. I met Heath Ledger during the Toronto International Film Festival. He came to town for the movie Brokeback Mountain. You have to understand, this was a time when there was no social media. People didn't really know where the celebrities were going, because there was no paper trail. And partying was something that was underground and very safe. So I had to facilitate that and make sure that everyone who came to town had a good time. VIP syndrome is when celebrities are treated as special. People are star-struck. Everybody caters to this person. They want to be part of the party. As a result, though, they're almost fuelling this addiction. Nobody is asking the more important question, 'Is this too much? Is this person suffering? 'Is there something more going on here?' Him and his manager showed up to the club that we were working at. He came right in. He didn't look too great. He looked like he had been up for a bit. And when he came to me, the management said to me, 'Is there anything here that I can get my hands on?' And I said, 'Like?' And he said, 'I want to go on a ski trip.' A ski trip is also known as a lot of cocaine. And I was like, 'OK, sure. 'There's the guy over there. You can make the connection there, and away you go.' And the night began. And I showed Heath Ledger and his 'manager' around town. And that went on for about three solid days. I mean, it was crazy. The licence to party that celebrities get may be the reason why we see so many celebrity drug addicts. And there's people all around who should be protecting you, who should be helping you go on the straight and narrow, if that's what you choose, but they're in fact giving you things. They're giving you whatever you need. Celebrities definitely have a special licence. Club owners, myself, security guards, everyone turns a blind eye when a celebrity wants to party. It's difficult for a celebrity to stop drug use when everybody around them is enabling that behaviour. They want to be part of the party. They want to have a good time. Nobody is saying no to this person, where, really, it just takes, like, one person to say, 'No, let's actually talk. What's going on here? What's underneath this need to use?' There are reports that Michelle wanted Heath to enter rehab in 2006, two years before his death, but also reports that he refused to go. In my practice, when I see this happening, it can be really hard on the relationship. You feel so helpless. You want to help this person. But in the end, an addict has to want it themselves. Heath Ledger not wanting to go to rehab could be because the enablers around him made him feel he didn't have a problem. They generally tend to normalise bad behaviours. You get into trouble, and they make excuses for you. Heath is seemingly in a very dark place in his life, and about to take on the darkest role of his career. * NIGELLA LAWSON: Whittaker's have always believed that best is better, and now Andrew and Brian have made a luscious new caramel filling. It's creamier, more buttery and velvety. Mmm. Better in every way. * Bad influences can lead to bad choices. Heath Ledger was, in one way, a devoted actor and father, and, in another, a reclusive celebrity numbing his own reality with late nights and bad behaviour. Add to it a dangerous mix of prescription meds to combat depression, and Heath is clearly heading for trouble. Now, as his relationship with Michelle falls apart, his health fragile, he takes on the role of the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Like River Phoenix, he puts all of himself into his role. and none more deeply than this one. When Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker, I think it took a lot of people by surprise. They thought of him as the guy from 10 Things I Hate About You or Brokeback Mountain, How can he play one of the most iconic characters ever? There's a certain amount of pressure that comes with that. While in production on The Dark Knight, it's announced that Heath and Michelle have separated. The resulting custody battle over his daughter, Matilda, weighs heavily on him. Heath immerses himself completely in the world and psyche of the Joker. And I just wonder, because it was probably the darkest time of his life, and the darkest role of his life, I wonder how he navigated that with coming... out of it. Heath's struggles with anxiety and depression intensify. And to add to this mix, the insomnia which he has battled on and off now begins to consume him. Heath was very public about his sleeping issues and his insomnia, which, again, is quite common with people who are suffering from anxiety and depression, because we have intrusive, racing thoughts that will not stop. And let me tell you, when you are working all day and you're numbing that by acting, when you're laying in bed, guess what's there waiting for you ` all of those negative thoughts. What can happen is people become desperate. 'I just need to sleep.' So they reach for, like, literally anything that will help. Not long after wrapping The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger was off to England to start shooting Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Actors, generally speaking, like to take time between projects. In the case of The Dark Knight into the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, there wasn't that much time. It was only a couple of weeks. He was ill going into making it, but threw himself into it, and it was a difficult, complicated shoot. I think Christopher Plummer talked about him having walking pneumonia when he was on set, being really physically sick, and still showing up for work while, by all accounts, externally, his personal life was unravelling. In the months before Heath Ledger died, there was some custody issues and he couldn't spend time with his daughter, Matilda. Not being able to spend Christmas with his daughter must have made Heath Ledger feel like he was abandoned. A lot of my clients who are going through divorce, a custody battle, tell me they're quite grateful that they're working day and night, because it's a way that they're coping. So this could have been what Heath was doing, is just throwing himself into work. But then, of course, when he goes home to his bed, all of those anxious thoughts are waiting for him. When shooting in London wraps, Heath heads back to New York City. He is separated from Matilda, who is on set in Sweden with Michelle. He's in New York, he's not slept, he's probably physically ill in some way. You come out of an environment like a set, where it's all noise and fun ` or action, anyway ` to... solitude, in your apartment, that solitude, I think, can be deafening. And how alone you are can really, I think, sink in in a very powerful, direct, palpable way. Heath makes a phone call to home in Australia and talks to his sister. Overall, it's positive, but there is a darker undertone. She tells him to be careful about mixing his medication, and worries for him. He jokingly reassures her she has nothing to worry about. When you're cocktailing drugs, you don't know how they'll interact with each other. So you can mix two depressants and have an even more significant effect, or you could be speedballing, where you're mixing uppers and downers, and that can have devastating effects. The fact that Heath ended up taking a mix of drugs that he did or did not know would interact just tells me how desperate he was to get sleep, how desperate he was to get a moment of feeling relief. On January 2nd, 2008, Heath Ledger was found by his housekeeper and masseuse. It seems that he had gone to sleep, but this time he would never wake up. Heath Ledger's death was really shocking news. You don't expect actors, at age 28, to pass away. The coroner determined Heath Ledger died as a result of an acute intoxication of the combined effects of prescription medications including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, sleeping pills and antihistamines. It was a shock for the world when Heath Ledger died. But he was suffering. I mean, it was clear that he was suffering. He was quite verbal about his insomnia. It was a shock that he died, but I don't think it's a shock that he was suffering. Heath Ledger needed a break from all of it. If he would have just been able to step out of the limelight, I mean, that would have saved his life. The tragedy there is the personal one, and that dwarfs everything. A lesser but real one is not knowing how he would have matured, because he was certainly nowhere near ` anywhere near the end of a career. It was just beginning. Heath Ledger's star shone brightly even after he passed away, when he went on to posthumously win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker. Heath Ledger was doing the thing that he does, and he was confounding our expectations one more time. He brought something that was unique to every role that he played. And that was only going to change as he got older, as he gained more life experience, as the roles that he would be offered changed. Uncomfortable in the spotlight, Heath Ledger suffered from crippling anxiety. Depression was at the heart of his struggles. Combined with his extreme insomnia, he was trapped in a vicious cycle that would be his undoing. Talented and troubled, Heath Ledger and River Phoenix escape into their characters. Their final escape proves deadly. Two kinds of cocktails, both lethal. Heath Ledger and River Phoenix each put their life and career under the influence.