Mentor Bella ready to square the ledger
For actress Bella Heathcote, winning the Heath Ledger Scholarship was ‘a godsend,’ now she’s ready to return the favour.
Melbourne actor Bella Heathcote was 22 when she boarded a plane bound for Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood.
The way Heathcote, now 37, tells it, it was a real ticket and a dream scenario – but she “definitely hadn’t thought through” the logistics of surviving there.
Fate was on her side: the day after landing, Heathcote received word she had been awarded the Heath Ledger Scholarship – and the much-needed $US10,000 that came with it.
“I don’t know what I would have done had I not won it. I would have had to find some job without a visa for cash,” she says.
“That money really helped. I had rent for three months. I really needed that scholarship.”
When The Australian catches up with Heathcote, it’s on her lunch break – she is in Perth filming season two of hit television show Scrublands.
With blockbusters such as Dark Shadows and In Time now under her belt, what she remembers most vividly about those early years in Los Angeles was “how painfully self-deprecating I was”.
“That just doesn’t fly in the US,” she says. “My one saving grace was this scholarship. I could talk about it, and it was something people recognised.
“Being associated with Heath in any way was a complete godsend. Otherwise, I was just walking into every room, like, ‘Yeah, I’m a bit crap’ … this thing just spoke for me.”
“I’d love to do a sliding doors moment of what my career would have been like without this.”
Not only did the scholarship change Heathcote’s career, but it also introduced her to her “entire friendship group in LA”, including Ryan Kwanten and Teresa Palmer.
“I don’t know how lonely I would have been without this,” she says.
Now she feels ready to pay it forward as the first recipient of the Heath Ledger Scholarship – which is awarded annually in Ledger’s name by the Los Angeles-based non-profit screen advocacy organisation Australians in Film – to become a mentor.
“I’ve been (in Los Angeles) for 14 years. If I can tell someone where to get a good coffee, or to not walk into an audition and tell everyone how crap you are, I’d love to.
“You need so much reassurance as an actor, and commiseration. It’s such a brutal industry.”
Ledger died in 2008 from an accidental drug overdose, after which his family and friends established the scholarship in his honour to empower promising Australian actors to launch their careers on the global stage.
This year’s scholarship package, valued at $US60,000 ($90,000), is the biggest yet and includes air travel from Delta, drama coaching, movement, voice and dialect coaching, photographic services, and a $US10,000 living allowance for rent and transport assistance. The scholarship winner must be over 18 and in the early stages of their acting career.
Previous recipients include Cody Fern (American Horror Story), Ashleigh Cummings (Puberty Blues, The Goldfinch), Charmaine Bingwa (The Good Fight), Ryan Corr (House of the Dragon), and Rahel Romahn (Furiosa: A Mad Max Story).
The 2024 Heath Ledger Scholarship is open for applications from Monday, July 1, to Wednesday, July 31.
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