Terry Gilliam has described the late Heath Ledger as a 'genius'.
Gilliam was awarded the Academy Fellowship at the Baftas on Sunday night and speaking after he had collected the gong he said: "It would have been nice if Heath had won more awards when he was alive.
"Heath was a genius, I think there was nothing he could not do." He had previously called Australian star 'the best actor of his generation'.
There was more award success for Ledger at the Baftas as he picked up yet another Best Supporting Actor award for his role as the Joker in blockbuster The Dark Knight.
This adds to the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild that he was awarded for his performance. Ledger has landed an Oscar nomination and is the favourite to scoop the award in two weeks time.
The pair were working together on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus when Ledger died of an accidental overdose. With the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who stepped into the lead role, Gilliam has completed the movie.
Gilliam also hit back at reports that surfaced in January that Ledger was experimenting with drugs before he died telling Entertainment Weekly: "The insomnia was really getting to him. He'd arrive (on set) in the morning looking really shattered... (but) he'd just whip the thing up into another gear very quickly and off we'd go.
"They (media) tried to hard to pin (drug abuse) on him, but they couldn't because Heath was as clean as you could be."
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