Rufus Sewell recalls ‘riotous’ weeks filming A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger

Few films hold onto their popularity years after release quite like A Knight’s Tale, the 2001 medieval action-comedy that starred the likes of Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell and Paul Bettany.

Speaking to HELLO! on the BAFTA Tea Party red carpet, Rufus shared warm memories from creating the film, especially about the time he spent with the late Heath Ledger, who tragically passed away in 2008 aged just 28.

“My initial memory is just me and Heath being in Prague, getting into trouble for weeks before filming started,” he told us.

“We had a wonderful time. He was such a lovely man, and we were great friends. And there was a period when it was me and him and then one by one the other cast members arrived. To tell you the truth, when we were filming, we were all pretty well behaved, but there was a pretty riotous few weeks.”

Although the pair weren’t allowed to do their own stunt work in the film, which consisted of a lot of jousting, Rufus added: “Heath was a bit more athletic than me and occasionally they’d let him go because he looks so good on a horse, but I looked like a kind of distressed vicar.”

Rufus Sewell’s illustrious film career

During his years on screen, Rufus has become known for his villainous roles, including Count Adhemar of Anjou in A Knight’s Tale and Crown Prince Leopold in The Illusionist.

Talking about the challenge of playing the bad guy, he mused: “That’s why it was so lovely playing Lord Melbourne in Victoria, because to my friends and the people that know me, I’m more likely to be overfriendly than the other way around, but my face sits a certain way. I look like I want to kill someone. But I don’t think I’m any closer to those kinds of characters than anything else; I do believe we’re all a mix.

“So when I’m playing people who are really good, I try to find a bit of the shade in them. And when I’m playing someone who might be considered antagonistic, I try to find the humour in them and try to bring everything to a polka dot kind of non-black, non-white thing.

“It turns out that they are always really fun characters to play, especially someone like Hal [Wyler in The Diplomat], who people judge a lot, but he’s often doing something that looks bad that turns out good or vice versa. And actually, you know, Kate’s [Wyler] not that dissimilar. He is a little bit more rogue, but it’s tremendous fun. I like him a lot. I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”