Thirstory: Heath Ledger Was a Sk8er Boi

Welcome to Thirstory, where we whet your appetite with pages from the Interview archives that were almost too hot to print. This week, we resurface a March 2004 profile on the late actor Heath Ledger. 

Fun fact: I’ll bet you didn’t know that Heath Ledger was the backstory behind Avril Lavigne’s hit single “Sk8er Boi.” Well, that’s because he wasn’t, but these 2004 photographs could have fooled me. Captured by the photographer Ben Watts, the late actor, then 24, embodies everything we’d like to imagine inspired Lavigne’s early-aughts masterpiece. 

Here, Ledger is a dreamboat on wheels, skating across the pages and into our hearts. Is he as skilled at shredding as The Skate Kitchen ladies? Probably not, but he’s goofy and always holding out a hand for you to embrace. Ledger is, dare I say it, the perfect specimen of man. Can I make it anymore obvious?