Why Heath Ledger Gifted Andrew Garfield Sunglasses the Day They Met: 'I Still Have Lots of Mementos of His'

Andrew Garfield and Heath Ledger worked together on 2009's 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' before Ledger died midway through production

Andrew Garfield is remembering late costar Heath Ledger's generosity.

During Garfield's recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote We Live in Time, the actor recalled that Ledger, who died in 2008 at age 28, once gave him a pair of sunglasses the first time they met.

"I still have lots of mementos of his," Garfield, 41, said. "I remember the first day I met him he was wearing these amazing Ray-Ban sunglasses and I said, 'Hey, cool sunglasses,' and he was like, 'Oh yeah?' And the next day they were in my dressing room. He just left them for me."

"He was just a very generous, like, beautiful creative spirit," he added.

Garfield and Ledger worked together on the 2009 movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which ultimately amounted to Ledger's final onscreen appearance after his death from an accidental overdose. When Garfield met Ledger, the latter actor was fresh off filming his famous role as the Joker in ​Christopher Nolan's 2008 movie The Dark Knight.

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"I think he was a kind of beacon, it was kind of like a wild animal. He had just done the Joker, he had just finished doing The Dark Knight, and he was so smug about it," Garfield said with a laugh. "I was like, 'How did that go?' And he was like, 'Yeah, it's going to be good.' "

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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus followed a man who gains immortality by making a deal with the devil. Thousands of years into his life, he travels with a theatre group. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell showed up to complete the film as variations of Ledger's character after Ledger died midway through production. 

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"[Ledger] was so free and so wild and kind of dangerous on set in a way that was a kind of thing that is inspiring and spontaneous," Garfield recalled, admitting that he himself was "really concerned with getting it right, or being good, whatever that means," at that point in his career.

"He would say before every take or maybe one take every scene, 'Let's have some fun with this one,' " Garfield added. "And I was like, 'Oh yeah, let's have some fun with this one, let's have some fun rather than trying to get it right.' "

We Live in Time is in select theaters now, then nationwide on Oct. 18.

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