Shekhar Kapur's Tribute To Heath Ledger: 'He Was A Very Spiritual Person'

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who directed late Hollywood star Heath Ledger in the 2002 epic 'The Four Feathers', has paid fulsome tribute to the late actor as the 15th anniversary of his death.

Ledger had a brief but bright career as a leading man, scoring Oscar and BAFTA best actor nominations for Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain' (2005). He was found dead on January 22, 2008. He was 28, reports Variety.

He went on to win both the Oscar and BAFTA for supporting actor posthumously for playing the Joker in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight'.

At the time of Ledger's death, Kapur was working with him on a satire on the media titled 'The Nine O'Clock War' and was one of the last people to speak with the actor.

"Heath and I became very close. He used to write to me and he called me my brother from another mother, we became that close," Kapur told Variety.

"Heath, even for his young age, was a very spiritual person and our conversations meandered through the ideas of space and the ideas of consciousness and all of that, and he tried to bring all those ideas into the film. And if you ever look at the film again, you realise that his performance has a far greater depth than just playing Harry Faversham."

In 'The Four Feathers', based on the 1902 novel by A.E.W. Mason, Ledger plays Faversham, a British army officer accused of cowardice who finds redemption in military action in the Sudan.

Kapur said he travelled to New York to meet Ledger to discuss 'The Nine O'Clock War'.

The actor had just returned from a shoot in Vancouver and said he was tired. They planned to meet the next day after Ledger had a massage. Kapur was staying with his friend, the author and alternative medicine practitioner Deepak Chopra.