Los Angeles, Jan 31 (IANS): Actress Michelle Williams decided just before filming that she couldn't star in a movie inspired by the loss of her former fiance and actor Heath Ledger.

The actress ultimately decided against taking the role in 'Blood' as it was "all a little too close for her still", following the passing of 'The Dark Knight' star and the father of her 16-year-old daughter Matilda, who died from an accidental overdose aged 28 in 2008, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Bradley Rust Gray, the film's director and a friend of Ledger, told Entertainment Weekly: "When we were getting ready to shoot the film, she realised it was all a little too close for her still, and she politely bowed out."

Williams was to play Chloe, who travels to Japan after her husband passes away and reconnects with an old friend and the idea of falling in love again, and 'Blade Runner 2049' star Carla Juri took her place.

Rust Gray added that he and Michelle both "shared the weight" of Ledger's death.

He said: "We both shared this weight, of death, and the feeling that you always carry that weight when somebody close to you dies."

The movie, which is about their battle with grief, has already won the Special Jury Award for Uncompromising Artistic Vision at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

The Academy Award winner met Ledger, who she split from in 2007, while they were working opposite each other on the 2005 Ang Lee movie 'Brokeback Mountain', and Williams previously spoke of how the loss "changed her" in 2011.

She said: "Now, my life, our life, has a kind of repaired itself. (Ledger's death has) changed how I see the world and how I interact on a daily basis. It's changed the parent I am. It's changed the friend I am. It's changed the kind of work that I really want to do.

"It's become the lens through which I see life - that it's all impermanent."

The movie star has since married Thomas Kail, who is best known for directing the Broadway smash-hit 'Hamilton', and the pair welcomed a child in 2020.