Heath Ledger's Final Performance Screened at Cannes

Heath Ledger's final performance before his 2008 death, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Friday.

Although the Australian actor only completed half of his performance for the movie before he died by an accidental drug overdose last January, director Terry Gilliam vowed to finish the film, the Associated Press reports.

Look back at the life of Heath Ledger.

"Fortunately, I was surrounded by really good people who insisted that I couldn't be such a lazy bastard and that we had to go out and find a way of finishing the film for Heath," Gilliam said.

His solution was to cast Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play incarnations of Ledger during otherworldly portions of the fantasy film.

See photos of stars gone too soon.

"What I thought was interesting was to watch people filling the void that Heath left," he said. "Everybody was just growing to make sure that there was no void left in the space that Heath had left us."

Gilliam gave equal credit to the three actors for stepping up to the task.

"They're all doing other films, they're involved in other projects, and they came to the rescue of this thing," he said. "They did it solely, basically, for nothing. The money they would have been paid went to Matilda, Heath's daughter. To me, they're the real heroes."

See photos of Heath Ledger with his daughter, Matilda Rose.

Still, Gilliam was most impressed with Ledger's performance.

"Heath was enjoying himself so much, and he was ad-libbing a lot, which I don't normally allow ... but Heath was just brilliant at it, and he got everybody else going," Gilliam said. "Everybody was just energized by Heath. He was extraordinary. He was almost exhausting because he had so much energy."

The film -- which closed with the dedication, "A film from Heath Ledger and friends" -- references such parallels to Ledger as unforeseen death and remaining forever young,

"This is the movie Heath wanted to see, and this is the movie that we will do," Gilliam said. "And I hope he would be pleased with it. I think he would be."

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