Joke that sparked Aussie comedian Wil Anderson’s feud with Heath Ledger

“Never been less enthusiastic”: Aussie comedian and presenter Wil Anderson has spilled on his awkward interview with the late actor.

Comedian Wil Anderson has opened up about his awkward interview with Heath Ledger, which saw the late actor bristle over a joke about his film.

Speaking to Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie on Thursday, Anderson revealed that the incident had occurred while he was a Triple J host in 2003.

“Heath had just done the Ned Kelly movie, and he came into our studio and it was like he had been taken hostage,” he said.

“He was on the verge of doing a one-word interview. I’ve never been less enthusiastic about being in a radio interview.”

Anderson added that he’d decided to try and lighten the “serious” mood during their chat.

“I thought I’d just try to make a little joke, because he’s doing this serious actor speech about how he wanted to understand why Ned Kelly was so tortured,” he recalled.

“I said, ‘do you reckon it might be just because he always had really bad hat hair?’”

Aussie comedian and podcast host, Wil Anderson.

Ledger in Ned Kelly.

But the quip did not go down well.

“Heath says to me, ‘That’s not very funny, is it?’, so I say that I didn’t see his movie 10 Things I Hate About You twice, mate! Which was a lie … because I had.”

Ledger tragically died from an accidental overdose of prescription medication in 2008.

Earlier this month, Anderson addressed another celebrity feud, inviting Andy Lee on his popular podcast, Wilosophy, to discuss their past issues.

The comedian and Lee – along with his comedy partner, Hamish Blake – reportedly had tension dating back to the early 2000s when the duo landed a spot on a Channel 7 TV show.

“I want to raise something with you which is pretty confronting,” Lee told him.

“Hamish and I didn’t like you for a very, very, long time.”

The radio star explained that during the early days of their career, he and Blake had been cast on a sketch show, originally titled Big Bite, which had featured a number of well-established comedians, many of whom were friends with Anderson.

Hamish Blake and Andy Lee previously had an issue with Anderson. Picture: Supplied

Shortly before it launched, Seven renamed it Hamish & Andy, which understandably ruffled feathers.

“As 21-year-olds in our first gig, to step out and see everyone in there looking at you going, ‘You’ve just stolen our f***ing show’, we tried to talk to people, and it turned into a train wreck,” Lee recalled.

“It was an awful experience.”

Anderson, who was a host on ABC and a Triple J radio show, reportedly began regularly mocking them on air when their show was axed after just six weeks.

When Lee and Anderson eventually met face-to-face for the first time at a Sydney restaurant, the latter made a cutting remark about how much money he’d made from publicly dissing the duo.

Speaking about the feud on Wilosophy, Anderson admitted to Lee that he’d “behaved like a d**khead”.

“I thought it was funny, I thought I was being really smart … For me it felt like I was punching up, I thought I was making fun of commercial TV whereas in retrospect I understand … you were just guys trying to do a good job and trying to work hard that were being punched down,” he told Lee.

“I’d forgotten that ‘Hamish and Andy’ were actually people, not a brand or a symbol of something but actual people.”

Anderson added: “The big thing that came to me was the realisation when I started listening to your radio show that you weren’t what I had heard you were.

“I just kept hearing how hard you worked, and if there’s one thing I admire, it’s hard work.”

Originally published as Joke that sparked Aussie comedian Wil Anderson’s feud with Heath Ledger