HEATH LEDGER - HEALTH LEDGER 'DESTROYED' HIS OWN CAREER

Australian actor HEATH LEDGER was so terrified by his movie success, he attempted to "destroy" his career so he wouldn't become too commercialised.

The 24-year-old screen hunk rose to phenomenal popularity after appearing in THE PATRIOT and A KNIGHT'S TALE, but quickly learned it wasn't the kind of recognition he wanted.

He says, "It was a time when I had not really chosen my career path - it had been chosen for me. I didn't audition for A Knight's Take; I was given it.

"And then the studio put my face on a poster and wrote, 'He Will Rock You,' and if I didn't, my career would have been over. That was the first lead I'd had in anything, and there were all these new pressures, which freaked me out.

"I felt like my career was out of my hands. I wasn't making any decisions; they were being made for me. And so to a certain degree, I had to go out and destroy my career somewhat in order to rebuild it. At the time, I had studios telling me I was crazy. I had agents on my back, publicists, family members, everyone saying, 'What are you doing? You should be this. You should be that. You should follow the dollar. Follow the gloss.'

"My life is together, both professionally and socially. But it's been a big learning process, and there is no YODA - there's no one who points you in the right direction. You've got to figure that out by yourself."