Aug 22 2008
J.Depp, J.Law, & C.Farrell Have Compassion On Heath’s Daughter
It’s amazing to find kindness in Hollywood today. Real, genuine kindness.
Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell are all actors who, along with now-deceased Heath Ledger, are playing a lead role in Terry Gilliam’s (you’d know him from Monty Python, most likely) upcoming fantasy adventure film, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus . They’re all huge budget actors, and usually we expect actors to just do movies, get paid over-excessive amounts of money, and live the rich life, without actually seeming like they’re real.
But these three actors have gone above and beyond for their former friend’s daughter, in refusing their pay for their rolls in the new film, instead donating the money they’d have made to Heath’s 2 year old daughter by actress Michelle Williams, Matilda. When I first read the headlines about this fact, stemming from an article and comments made by Terry Gilliam in Britain’s The Sun, I was touched. Matilda was oddly left out of Heath’s will–probably because he didn’t expect to die before he altered it–and the actors wanted to insure she was taken care of. It’s a testament to Heath’s character, I think. As well as that of the three actors in question.
Now, of course, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell are actors we could just write off as (of course) being able to afford to give away a paycheck now and again, without a second thought. But if you are that rich, and you are making millions of dollars per film, that is your paycheck and your life, and to be that compassionate towards a friend’s daughter is impressive.
I think Terry Gilliam made a good statement when he said to The Sun, ” That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people.’”
Kudos to Johnny, Colin and Jude.
