Heath Ledger takes on “one arm of Bob Dylan” in director Todd Haynes’ semi-fictional film on the enigmatic legend, I’m Not There.

NEW YORK -- It takes a big man to admit a woman can do a better job at the same task.

And Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old Aussie actor nominated for an Oscar for 2005's Brokeback Mountain, is apparently that guy.

Ledger is among six actors -- along with Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, England's Ben Whishaw and teenaged newcomer Marcus Carl Franklin -- who portray a different side of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' new semi-fictional film, I'm Not There.

The movie opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver tomorrow and in other Canadian markets early in the new year.

It is Blanchett who has garnered the loudest Oscar buzz for her uncanny portrayal of "electric-era" Dylan.

"I did into run Cate on her last day (of shooting), and she looked like Dylan and walked and talked and smelled like Dylan, and I didn't," Ledger joked at a press conference.

Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood, who has incredible verbal jousting scenes as a British TV interviewer called Mr. Jones opposite Blanchett in the film, is equally effusive.

"In a way it was kind of effortless, 'cause you just kind of look at her," said Greenwood, at Ledger's side. "From the moment I got on the stage, it was just riveting. So it was really easy to be in the room with her because she's such a deep keel."

In I'm Not There -- which gets its name from a Dylan song recorded during The Basement Tapes sessions in Woodstock, N.Y., in 1967 -- Ledger portrays the celebrity side of Dylan through a character named Robbie, a New York actor and motorcycle enthusiast. Robbie falls in love, gets married and has kids (Charlotte Gainsbourg plays his wife) before the pressures of fame splits the couple up.

The actor said he never really got to know Dylan, even after researching him through books, documentaries, and his music.

"Essentially, Todd kind of dissected Bob and I was like an amputated limb, so I was concentrating on one arm of Bob Dylan," Ledger said. "I think the beauty of Todd's film is I can't tell you that I know anything more about Bob Dylan than you do.

"Todd attempted to respectfully preserve Bob Dylan's mystique, and he has kept him in the shadows still."

Ledger's own tumultuous personal life -- he recently split from his fiancee and Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams -- would suggest he can relate to the struggles of his character in the movie. The couple share custody of a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda.

"It's a fairly gypsy-esque lifestyle, and I can certainly relate to (juggling family life, social life and professional life)," he said. "I didn't agree with Robbie on a lot of his actions and his words, but that's not my job to agree. But I could relate, and I could try and understand."

Ledger will next be seen on screen as The Joker opposite Christian Bale's Batman in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, and Ledger seems determined to make the part his own.

"I was definitely a fan of what Jack Nicholson did and the world that Tim Burton created (in 1989's Batman), and I can tell you now if Tim Burton was directing The Dark Knight and he came he asked me to play The Joker, I'd say, 'No, I couldn't. You couldn't reproduce what Jack did.'

"And so the reason why I confidently stepped in those shoes, is when Chris asked me if I'd seen Batman Begins (also directed by Nolan) ... I knew the world (he) created (was different) and I also knew there was a different angle to be taken (with The Joker)."

Director Haynes tangled up in Bob, Big Apple

NEW YORK -- Director Todd Haynes says his semi-fictional Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There, in which six different actors play characters representing different sides of the music icon, was inspired by both a "flood of fresh obsession around Dylan" that he found himself in at the end of his 30s, and by life in New York City.

"It all kind of started in this very unplanned, unfocused, sort of spirit of love and obsession, which Dylan can provide those who are in want of that," said Haynes, who previously directed Velvet Goldmine and Far From Heaven.

"And I think that people turn to him at different points in their life when they may be looking for someone who encourages change."

Haynes found his way into various Dylan biographies, and Dylan music he hadn't listened to in high school. He arrived at one conclusion.

"I just kept confronting this idea of him as somebody who changes and who enters these creative psychic phases thoroughly, and then exhausts them and moves on -- and has to kind of almost reject it just to clear the air and start fresh."

Once he'd come up with the concept of several Dylans, the next big step was getting the rights for his music. Otherwise, the singer-songwriter wasn't involved in the movie. As of two weeks ago, the director still didn't know if Dylan had seen his film.

"He has a DVD, I believe, with him in his suitcase on the road," Haynes said. "And that's the last we heard."

Haynes isn't holding his breath for feedback from Dylan but would love some.

"I hope so, my God, I gotta hear something. But he kind of works on his own time, his own pace, so I'm not going to, like, pressure him."

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