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

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]ACTION.

[00:00:01]>> [cheering] [screaming] >> SO, FIRST OF ALL, WHEN YOU FIRST READ THE SCRIPT OF THIS, DID YOU wonder how it was going to work incorporating these modern elements into a medieval story?

[00:00:19]Yeah, I did. I did. It was um I was kind of like Yeah, I opened the first page and and and it reads tournament grounds you know, and la la la la la la la and then Queen, We Will Rock You picks up and comes in. And as soon as I read that, I was thinking, "Oh, no.

[00:00:35]Oh, what are they trying to make here?" And oh god. How did the nobles become noble in the first place, huh?

[00:00:43]They took it at the tip of a sword. I'll do it with a lance.

[00:00:47]>> lance?

[00:00:48]>> Oh, no matter what, a man can change his stars. Then I kept reading and it kept it it it it started to explain itself and the movie just kept getting better and better and better page by page, but the more I read, the more I was just thinking, "This guy's crazy. He's he's setting himself up on this movie.

[00:01:04]He's he's putting all this like there was so much in that script."

[00:01:16]There was a you know, the action and through the jousting there was the romance and and there he had written in the comedy and the now the rock and roll music and then on top of that he had like this heartbeat this this rich sensitivity like just smothered through the script through the pages and and it was wonderful, but it I was just thinking, "How the hell is he going to pull this off?" It it's it's a tough task and he was he's really set up some hurdles in front of him.

[00:01:42]Next time I face you, Count Adhemar, you'll look up at me from the flat of your back. Please.

[00:01:48]You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.

[00:01:53]He's a talented writer and and I could see I could feel, I I I I heard his his his passion and towards, you know, visualizing this script and and and and I just I I was really enthused by it and I was really excited by it and and so that was it. We were both on the same page, we both thought the same way about the character and the and the script and uh and that was it. And you know what? He pulled it off. That's the thing is it was I was reading and thinking, "Well, you know, it's going to take a bit of magic for him to you know, whack all this together, but I want to be there for the ride. I want to check this out and I want to give it A SHOT MYSELF."

[00:02:32]>> [screaming] >> WELL, YOU CAN SEE HOW PHYSICAL IT WAS.

[00:02:40]YEAH, it was very physical. Um I guess the the the sword fighting [music] was the most physical aspect of it, you know, cuz it's on foot and it's hot and it's in armor and it's a lot of movement and Um but that was fun and that was, you know, that wasn't that hard. You're slightly restricted by your armor. You have less room to move.

[00:03:00]Um but God, it's fun, you know? You're a kid again. You just feel like you're at the back of your your your house playing around with your friends while your mom's making lunch.

[00:03:12]You know, that's what it was. It was an extension of that and uh you know, I just I I had such a wonderful time, you know?

[00:03:27]A lot of the stunt guys, actually, they do it for a living. It's a professional thing. They work in Vegas at the Excalibur Hotel jousting. And so they came in and taught us how to hold the lines properly and uh you know, all that stuff.

[00:03:44]Come on.

[00:03:47]Come on, Tony's.

[00:03:49]Follow him.

[00:03:52]Can you look at that film? There's favorite comments that kind of pop out at you? Oh, tons of them. Most of them Most of them I think are all the exchanges between Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk.

[00:04:00]Those two.

[00:04:01]Um definitely. And uh I don't know. For me, uh work-wise, what pops out is I guess the dancing. All that dance stuff was a lot of fun. And one and two three and four five six seven change partner and one.

[00:04:19]But in general, the movie represents that whole time that whole time of my life there. That's what the movie represents because I see it and I feel it when I'm watching it. I just feel you know, all the fun that we had and all that, you know, I can I can it takes me straight back there, which is which is really nice cuz it was a good time. Places.

[00:04:40]Places.

[00:04:49]I wouldn't call myself a dancer. I dance for fun. And how did I pull it off? I don't know. I just did it. [music] I just had fun. Just throw judgment out the window. Just throw fears and and just do it, you know? Just dance.

[00:05:02][music] And I give it 100%.

[00:05:05]And just have fun. That's the thing.

[00:05:17]Yeah, well, we worked for about 3 weeks on that. And we >> [music] >> we had a couple of hours a day a few days a week for about 3 weeks.

[00:05:25]Cuz the original the dance actually lasts for about 6 or 7 minutes. It's a quite a long dance.

[00:05:36]Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

[00:05:39]Your name, lady.

[00:05:41]I still need to hear it.

[00:05:43]>> [sighs] >> Sir Hunter, you persist. Or perhaps angels have no names.

[00:05:48]Only beautiful faces.

[00:05:51]Thandie is wonderful. She's She's wonderful and and she's only going to blossom more and more and more from this and and for her to just walk onto a movie of of this size or any movie for her first time and and and deal with all of this, you know, cuz it's very She was foreign to technically what the hell's going on? I have to hit a mark and I have to you know, that sort of stuff like a kind of a culture shock when walking on for the first time and so, you know, it was just a matter of putting her at ease and we didn't have to We didn't have to give her any help because she's a natural.

[00:06:26]She really just got through it herself.

[00:06:31]So what do you think?

[00:06:35]Now that you know what I am.

[00:06:38]Not to know what you are, William.

[00:06:41]It would take a lifetime.

[00:06:43]One I am most willing to give, but right now you've got to run.

[00:06:47]And you know, so I I just really focused on when in a scene with her being here and holding her there and that was easy cuz as soon as I was there with her, she was there with me and she would work like that. And we'd go back and forth and so there was a working relationship and I think she just has that naturally in her as an instinct and I think she's going to you know I think she's a wonderful actor.

[00:07:10]Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick.

[00:07:19]It's called a lance.

[00:07:21]Hello.

[00:07:23]This movie Ryan Reynolds is calling it the coolest movie of the summer.

[00:07:26]>> That's cool. I think it is going to be the coolest movie of the summer. I love it. I think it's a lot of fun.

[00:07:31]What are you doing?

[00:07:33]Losing. I don't understand.

[00:07:36]Neither do I. I think they're right.

[00:07:38]It's It is. It's cool. It's fun. It really is and um yeah, look, it it makes my job a hell of a lot easier on this end of the camera promoting something when I genuinely love it and I do. It's fun. Yeah.

[00:07:50]>> [music] >> I think it makes sense. I think it makes complete sense and and I got it right from the moment I read the script I got what he was doing and I think it I think it I think it was a great little experiment, you know, and it worked and it's I think it's great. I don't think I don't think it's so weird or awkward or different at all actually. It feels really appropriate when you're watching the movie that those songs come on for some reason.

[00:08:19]>> [music] >> The theory is is that is what it sounded like to them and the movie happens in the 1370s so the theory is it's always the 70s when it's the 70s whether it's 1370 or 1770 or 1970.

[00:08:47]How hard was it to get Heath up on that horse when with all that armor?

[00:08:51]>> Yeah, I know it was hard to get Heath off the horse. It was easy to get him on.

[00:08:55]He popped right on. It was hard getting him off at the end of the day.

[00:08:58]I don't need to know the details.

[00:09:00]>> Landscape then stay on the horse.

[00:09:02]He needs three points to beat you so a broken lance won't win it for him. He has to knock you off the horse.

[00:09:06]>> I know how to score, Roland.

[00:09:09]I've waited my whole life for this moment. You're not the guy who jousts and rides the horse. You're kind of like met wrangled a horse.

[00:09:15]>> Yeah, I'm the yeah, yeah, which is tricky cuz I've never I've not spent any time around horses at all but uh you know, we got used to it by the end of 5 months in Prague we were we were pretty good with the horses.

[00:09:26]Morning.

[00:09:29]Morning.

[00:09:30]Nice ass.

[00:09:32]Being nude is only a hobby and I I you know, I have to cover up sometimes.

[00:09:38]Hold your tongue, sir, or lose it.

[00:09:42]May I see that?

[00:09:43]I do believe. I have to say that my uh my parents are enormously proud that I'm going around this world using my given name, taking my clothes off for money, you know.

[00:09:57]You don't look like a blacksmith or a welder. What are you? A welder or a blacksmith? I'm both.

[00:10:03]Uh you can try me with an arm wrestle.

[00:10:04]I've got really strong arms. I have word Master Fletcher.

[00:10:11]Word of your son.

[00:10:14]He wanted you to know that he changed his stars after all.

[00:10:20]It's a good old fashioned love loving uh believe in yourself love life story. I haven't seen a film like it before. You have been weighed.

[00:10:31]You have been measured.

[00:10:35]And you absolutely have been found wanting.

[00:10:44]Welcome to the new world.

[00:10:46]God save you.

[00:10:47]If it is right that he should do so.