"I've known Heath for a long time," says James Schamus, Lee's producing partner and now co-president of Focus Features, which is releasing "Brokeback Mountain" on Dec. 9. "I always thought he was underserved in a lot of the roles he did. We give all the credit to 'Monster's Ball.' There are two minutes in that film that show he's among the best actors of his generation. All we had to do was extend that two minutes into two hours. Just letting the camera roll."

Ledger wasn't even supposed to be in that film, but when his pal Wes Bentley dropped out at the last minute, he asked Ledger to cover for him so as not to derail the production. Ledger's harrowing performance, as a son withered by his father's contempt, was the first indication that the Aussie might be more than simply a handsome screen presence.

Ledger knew from the moment the Larry McMurtry-Diana Ossana script for "Brokeback Mountain" dropped in his lap that he wanted to play Ennis. He even told the filmmakers he'd fly to China just to meet Lee.

"I enjoyed the stillness, and I enjoyed the lack of words on the page. There was so much information about him in the short story, I knew how to play those silent moments."

Lee is famous for working closely with his actors in preproduction and rehearsal, then barely speaking to them once filming has commenced. Not that this method was a hindrance for Ledger.

"He's very meticulous," Lee says. "After we work on the scenes, in terms of rehearsal, he will have a very solid idea of what he wants to do. He'll turn himself into the zone, the zone I helped create, that movie world. Somehow he'll get in there and live there."

In playing Ennis, Ledger absorbed his utter desolation. "The whole shooting experience for me was incredibly lonely," he says. "Whether or not Ang created that environment for me to work and live in, or I created it for myself — it's a lonely story, so it's hard not to take it home with you and feel lonely."

He admits that both he and Gyllenhaal were "very, very nervous" about the gay love scenes — which are straightforward and unusually frank. (Indeed, there were those in Hollywood who even in this day and age thought that the two young heartthrobs could potentially alienate their teenage fans by playing gay.)

"It's not something that we'd searched for in everyday life. But we're pretty sensible people, Jake and I. We realized we're just two people, " says Ledger. "We realized it's necessary for the story — the level of intimacy had to be portrayed to increase the level of heartache for the story. It's easy to say it was difficult and hard, but it's really awkward having to do a love scene with anyone — whether it's a guy or a girl. There's a guy with the boom standing over you. It's always awkward."

'Brokeback' recovery

He recovered by flying to Venice for six months to play the title role in "Casanova" — as breezy and romantic as "Brokeback" is spare. It was a seat-of-the-pants production, with a totally new script delivered just two weeks before the start of shooting.

For director Lasse Hallström, a different kind of Ledger showed up. "He wants a loose atmosphere. He wants to be spontaneous and improvisational. Everything is geared toward that," Hallström says.

"It was basically a working holiday. An elaborate extended period of unwinding, so I could unravel myself from 'Brokeback Mountain,' " the actor explains. "It was really fun, just working in Venice. The city should only exist in your dreams. Getting picked up every morning in a boat. There are no camera trucks; there are camera boats. There are no trailers to hang out in. There are the streets and chairs. It's all very communal. All the cast would sit around and play dice games."

As he nurses his beer, Ledger bounces back into his genial persona, his Australian-tinged voice deep and somehow reassuring. But clearly, that's not all there is to him.

"I don't really like to do the same thing twice," he finally admits. "I like to do something I fear. I like to set up obstacles and defeat them. I like to be afraid of the project. I always am. When I get cast in something, I always believe I shouldn't have been cast. There's a huge amount of anxiety that drowns out any excitement I have toward the project. Pretty much any time I've signed on to a movie, I've tried to get out of it." He goes so far as to call his agent with his plans to escape. "He knows it's a routine. I know it's a routine. It feels like it's necessary to put myself down. It inspires me to focus more and work harder."