Michelle, Naomi Open Up About Heath

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Less than two months after HEATH LEDGER's untimely death, his exes MICHELLE WILLIAMS and NAOMI WATTS, among other friends, look back on Heath's short life in the upcoming issue of Interview magazine.

"I think that the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was," Michelle says, in the issue hitting newsstands March 18. "You can pick up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine. But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was."

"I think he wanted to be someone who was doing the observing -- not the one being observed," Naomi says. "He hated not being able to go about his life in an ordinary way. But I think that, deep down, he enjoyed that he was being recognized for his talent. I think he was starting to own that and that's the deepest tragedy, in terms of his work. He was just beginning to own it and embrace it."

Friend PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN remembers the actor for being passionate about what he believed in. "I remember that whenever Heath talked about something he liked, he did it in the way that any fan would," he says. "He wasn't somebody trying to cover up his excitement about something, or someone. When I think of him, I see him in a state of dance or something -- this constant state of movement. It didn't seem like anxiety to me. It seemed like excitement."

And leave it to ELLEN DEGENERES to add humor. "He was good at anything he did," she says of the actor. "He and Michelle came over to the house once, and they were really late because he was directing a BEN HARPER video. He was coming straight from that and he was telling us about it and how much he loved it. And then we played poker and he proceeded to take all of our money."