A Knight’s Tale Turns 25! RARE On-Set Footage and Heath Ledger Interviews | ET Vault Unlocked

0:00 ACTION.

0:02 [cheering] [screaming]

0:13 SO, FIRST OF ALL, WHEN YOU FIRST READ THE SCRIPT OF THIS, DID YOU

0:14 wonder how it was going to work

0:16 incorporating these modern elements into a medieval story?

0:19 Yeah, I did.

0:20 I did.

0:20 It was um I was kind of like Yeah,

0:24 I opened the first page and and and it reads tournament grounds you know,

0:27 and la la la la la la la and then Queen, We Will Rock You picks up and comes in.

0:32 And as soon as I read that, I was thinking, "Oh, no.

0:35 Oh, what are they trying to make here?" And oh god.

0:38 How did the nobles become noble in the first place, huh?

0:43 They took it at the tip of a sword.

0:45 I'll do it with a lance.

0:49 lance?

0:48 Oh, no matter what, a man can change his stars.

0:51 Then I kept reading and it kept it it it it started to explain

0:54 itself and the movie just kept getting

0:57 better and better and better page by page,

0:58 but the more I read, the more I was just thinking, "This guy's crazy.

1:02 He's he's setting himself up on this movie.

1:04 He's he's putting all this like there was so

1:06 much in that script." There was a you know,

1:17 the action and through the jousting there was the romance and and there

1:22 he had written in the comedy and the now the rock and roll music

1:25 and then on top of that he had like this heartbeat this this rich

1:29 sensitivity like just smothered through the script

1:32 through the pages and and it was wonderful, but it I was just thinking,

1:36 "How the hell is he going to pull this off?" It it's it's a tough

1:38 task and he was he's really set up some hurdles in front of him.

1:42 Next time I face you, Count Adhemar,

1:44 you'll look up at me from the flat of your back.

1:46 Please.

1:48 You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.

1:53 He's a talented writer and and I could see I could feel,

1:57 I I I I heard his his his passion and towards, you know,

2:04 visualizing this script and and and and I just I I was really enthused

2:08 by it and I was really excited by it and and so that was it.

2:12 We were both on the same page, we both thought the same way about the character

2:15 and the and the script and uh and that was it.

2:19 And you know what?

2:19 He pulled it off.

2:20 That's the thing is it was I was reading and thinking, "Well, you know,

2:23 it's going to take a bit of magic for him to you know,

2:26 whack all this together, but I want to be there for the ride.

2:28 I want to check this out and I want to give it A SHOT MYSELF." [screaming]

2:38 WELL, YOU CAN SEE HOW PHYSICAL IT WAS.

2:40 YEAH, it was very physical.

2:42 Um I guess the the the sword fighting [music]

2:47 was the most physical aspect of it, you know,

2:49 cuz it's on foot and it's hot and it's in armor and it's

2:52 a lot of movement and Um but that was fun and that was,

2:56 you know, that wasn't that hard.

2:57 You're slightly restricted by your armor.

2:58 You have less room to move.

3:00 Um but God, it's fun, you know?

3:04 You're a kid again.

3:04 You just feel like you're at the back of your your your house

3:08 playing around with your friends while your mom's making lunch.

3:12 You know, that's what it was.

3:13 It was an extension of that and uh you know,

3:17 I just I I had such a wonderful time, you know?

3:27 A lot of the stunt guys, actually, they do it for a living.

3:30 It's a professional thing.

3:31 They work in Vegas at the Excalibur Hotel jousting.

3:35 And so they came in and taught us how to hold

3:38 the lines properly and uh you know, all that stuff.

3:44 Come on.

3:47 Come on, Tony's.

3:49 Follow him.

3:52 Can you look at that film?

3:52 There's favorite comments that kind of pop out at you?

3:55 Oh, tons of them.

3:56 Most of them Most of them I think are

3:57 all the exchanges between Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk.

4:00 Those two.

4:01 Um definitely.

4:03 And uh I don't know.

4:05 For me, uh work-wise, what pops out is I guess the dancing.

4:09 All that dance stuff was a lot of fun.

4:11 And one and two three and four five six seven change partner and one.

4:19 But in general, the movie represents that whole

4:23 time that whole time of my life there.

4:25 That's what the movie represents because I see

4:27 it and I feel it when I'm watching it.

4:29 I just feel you know, all the fun that we had and all that, you know,

4:33 I can I can it takes me straight back there,

4:36 which is which is really nice cuz it was a good time.

4:39 Places.

4:40 Places.

4:49 I wouldn't call myself a dancer.

4:51 I dance for fun.

4:54 And how did I pull it off?

4:55 I don't know.

4:56 I just did it.

4:56 [music] I just had fun.

4:57 Just throw judgment out the window.

4:59 Just throw fears and and just do it, you know?

5:02 Just dance.

5:02 [music] And I give it 100%.

5:05 And just have fun.

5:05 That's the thing.

5:17 Yeah, well, we worked for about 3 weeks on that.

5:19 And we [music]

5:20 we had a couple of hours a day a few days a week for about 3 weeks.

5:25 Cuz the original the dance actually lasts for about 6 or 7 minutes.

5:28 It's a quite a long dance.

5:36 Yeah, it was fun.

5:37 It was a lot of fun.

5:39 Your name, lady.

5:41 I still need to hear it.

5:45 [sighs] Sir Hunter, you persist.

5:46 Or perhaps angels have no names.

5:48 Only beautiful faces.

5:51 Thandie is wonderful.

5:52 She's She's wonderful and and she's only going to blossom more

5:55 and more and more from this and and for her to just walk

5:58 onto a movie of of this size or any movie for her first

6:02 time and and and deal with all of this, you know,

6:06 cuz it's very She was foreign to technically what the hell's going on?

6:10 I have to hit a mark and I have to you know,

6:13 that sort of stuff like a kind of a culture

6:17 shock when walking on for the first time and so,

6:20 you know, it was just a matter of putting her at ease and we

6:22 didn't have to We didn't have to give her any help because she's a natural.

6:26 She really just got through it herself.

6:31 So what do you think?

6:35 Now that you know what I am.

6:38 Not to know what you are, William.

6:41 It would take a lifetime.

6:43 One I am most willing to give, but right now you've got to run.

6:47 And you know, so I I just really focused on when

6:50 in a scene with her being here and holding her there

6:54 and that was easy cuz as soon as I was there

6:56 with her, she was there with me and she would work like that.

6:58 And we'd go back and forth and so there

7:01 was a working relationship and I think she just has

7:03 that naturally in her as an instinct and I think

7:05 she's going to you know I think she's a wonderful actor.

7:10 Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick.

7:19 It's called a lance.

7:21 Hello.

7:23 This movie Ryan Reynolds is calling it the coolest movie of the summer.

7:26 That's cool.

7:26 I think it is going to be the coolest movie of the summer.

7:28 I love it.

7:29 I think it's a lot of fun.

7:31 What are you doing?

7:33 Losing.

7:34 I don't understand.

7:36 Neither do I.

7:37 I think they're right.

7:38 It's It is.

7:38 It's cool.

7:39 It's fun.

7:39 It really is and um yeah, look,

7:42 it it makes my job a hell of a lot easier on this end

7:44 of the camera promoting something when I genuinely love it and I do.

7:48 It's fun.

7:48 Yeah.

7:51 [music] I think it makes sense.

7:57 I think it makes complete sense and and I got

8:00 it right from the moment I read the script I

8:01 got what he was doing and I think it I

8:03 think it I think it was a great little experiment,

8:06 you know, and it worked and it's I think it's great.

8:09 I don't think I don't think it's so

8:10 weird or awkward or different at all actually.

8:12 It feels really appropriate when you're watching the movie

8:15 that those songs come on for some reason.

8:20 [music] The theory is is that is what it sounded

8:28 like to them and the movie happens in the 1370s

8:31 so the theory is it's always the 70s when

8:33 it's the 70s whether it's 1370 or 1770 or 1970.

8:47 How hard was it to get Heath up on that horse when with all that armor?

8:51 Yeah, I know it was hard to get Heath off the horse.

8:53 It was easy to get him on.

8:55 He popped right on.

8:56 It was hard getting him off at the end of the day.

8:58 I don't need to know the details.

9:00 Landscape then stay on the horse.

9:02 He needs three points to beat you so a broken lance won't win it for him.

9:05 He has to knock you off the horse.

9:06 I know how to score, Roland.

9:09 I've waited my whole life for this moment.

9:12 You're not the guy who jousts and rides the horse.

9:14 You're kind of like met wrangled a horse.

9:15 Yeah, I'm the yeah, yeah, which is tricky cuz I've never I've not spent

9:19 any time around horses at all but uh you know,

9:22 we got used to it by the end of 5 months

9:23 in Prague we were we were pretty good with the horses.

9:26 Morning.

9:29 Morning.

9:30 Nice ass.

9:32 Being nude is only a hobby and I I you know, I have to cover up sometimes.

9:38 Hold your tongue, sir, or lose it.

9:42 May I see that?

9:43 I do believe.

9:45 I have to say that my uh my parents are enormously

9:48 proud that I'm going around this world using my given name,

9:51 taking my clothes off for money, you know.

9:57 You don't look like a blacksmith or a welder.

9:59 What are you?

10:00 A welder or a blacksmith?

10:01 I'm both.

10:03 Uh you can try me with an arm wrestle.

10:04 I've got really strong arms.

10:06 I have word Master Fletcher.

10:11 Word of your son.

10:14 He wanted you to know that he changed his stars after all.

10:20 It's a good old fashioned love loving uh believe in yourself love life story.

10:25 I haven't seen a film like it before.

10:27 You have been weighed.

10:31 You have been measured.

10:35 And you absolutely have been found wanting.

10:44 Welcome to the new world.

10:46 God save you.

10:47 If it is right that he should do so.