A documentary about the death of Heath Ledger reveals that the Australian actor penned a haunting goodbye message months before his death from a drug overdose.
A snippet of the German documentary Heath Ledger: Too Young To Die the actor's father recounts the moment he found a notebook his son kept as he immersed himself in the role of the Joker for the 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight.
In the film, which was released in 2012 but has only recently become the subject of media attention, Mr Ledger said Heath locked himself up in a London hotel room for weeks preparing for the role, for which he was awarded an Oscar posthumously.
"He galvanized the upcoming character. That was typical of Heath. He would do that. He liked to dive into his characters, but this time he really took it up a notch," he said.
As Mr Ledger flips through the book which contains images of the comic book villain as well as Alex the protagonist of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange he reveals the words "BYE BYE" scrawled in large letters above handwritten notes.
"Before the end of the shooting he wrote 'bye bye' on the back of the page," he said.
"It was hard to see this."
Heath Ledger's cause of death has been attributed to an accidental overdose of an anti-depressant medication but mystery surrounds the final period of his life with many commentators suggesting he struggled emotionally after portraying the iconic Batman villain.
In one of his final interviews Ledger told Empire Magazine that he feared the role.
"I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices - it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh," the actor said.
"I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath - someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts."
