Death of a Film Star Crowd Stories+

When you see the news, his face stays with you. Heath Ledger as the Joker. Smeared in white grease paint, a slash of red across the mouth, a shock of dark blue around the eyes. When you take on a part so completely, it’s hard to get out. Things merge. Actor and character meet and mix. 

But Heath’s not that Joker. He’s another. Because he’s an actor who doesn’t play by Hollywood’s rules. He’s a man who doesn’t follow suit…
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WARNING: this episode contains references to suicide.

It’s not true to say there’s never been anyone like Marilyn Monroe. There’s always been movie stars. There’s been blonde ones. Ones with bodies that half the world wants to stare at and the other half want to ban. But no-one’s done it like her, and no-one’s paying quite such a price.
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There’s stuff you know about Chadwick Boseman – what he’s done as Black Panther, how good he was as James Brown in one biopic, as baseball hero Jackie Robinson in another, as judge Thurgood Marshall in his most recent. He’s different for the roles he plays, and different for what he does with them. But different, too, for all the stuff you don’t know.
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For Brittany Murphy, Hollywood’s a hall of mirrors. There’s a different Brittany wherever she looks. For some she’s a comic sidekick, for others a screen siren. Is she on the rise or washed-up?  Under-appreciated or over-promoted?  A victim or part of the problem? Sometimes, in Hollywood, when you’re looking for reality, all you find are others’ reflections. And eventually even Brittany herself is lost...
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When Robin Williams dies, you remember a connection. One that first forms in an empty mansion outside Detroit, and then reaches through the screen, big and small, into houses all over the world. President Barack Obama says what Robin meant to him. And to millions of others. “Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien - but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.”

WARNING: This episode contains references to suicide and addiction. If you’ve been affected by any of the issues we spoke about in this podcast or are worried about someone you love, please go to crowdnetwork.co.uk/helplines to find a list of people you can go to for help.
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When Cory Monteith’s story goes public, people are shocked. To most of us, his death is… unbelievable. But that’s not the truth. The truth will force people in Hollywood to have difficult conversations. About addiction. About addicts. About stereotypes. Demons always catch up with you. It doesn’t matter who you are. What you look like. Or who people think you are.

WARNING: This episode contains references to drug use and addiction. If you’ve been affected by any of the issues we spoke about in this podcast or are worried about someone you love, please go to crowdnetwork.co.uk/helplines to find a list of people you can go to for help.
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