Rose Byrne reveals how 'sweet' Heath Ledger helped launch her Hollywood career

Rose Byrne has revealed how "sweet" Heath Ledger helped her when she was trying to make it in Hollywood.

In an interview for Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, the actress recalled leaving Australia and arriving in Los Angeles, desperate to find her big break. Byrne praised fellow Australian Ledger for reaching out and taking her under his wing in her early career.

"I stayed with him a bunch of times, and he was so sweet," she smiled. "He'd get me in to audition for his things."

She added, "I really wanted to work internationally and wanted to have those ambitions, but by no means knew how. I had never been to L.A.... And then I did a film with Heath Ledger when we were 18. We were just kids."

Byrne had roles in Australian soap operas before she won the role of Ledger's love interest in the 1999 film Two Hands. She achieved her international breakthrough with the legal drama Damages, starring Glenn Close.

Before her big break, the 46-year-old actress struggled to know which direction her career should take, whereas Ledger always knew what he wanted to do.

"He was such a great example of an artist," Byrne explained. "He was always getting offered these TV shows when we were starting out, and he was really like, 'I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna just be a heartthrob.' I didn't have that confidence, to be like, 'Okay, I'll just not do TV.' At 20?"

When host Shepard asked if she had fallen for Ledger when they spent time together in the late '90s, Byrne said the pair had been "close".

She recalled, "He was such a charmer. He was a generous guy and such a talent and could have gone so many ways. We were close when we were 18, 19."

Ledger died from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 28 in January 2008.