Notebook
film
The Joker make-up took an hour
to apply and Ledger felt he was
not wearing any make-up at all
Ledger ‘‘not
disturbed by Joker’’
Stars rally against media claims
that Heath was affected by
his role in The Dark Knight
in the immortal words of Jack
Nicholson in his 1989 portrayal
of the Joker: “can somebody tell
me what kind of a world we live in,
where a man dressed up as a bat
gets all of my press?”
Not this time. heath Ledger’s
stunning innings as the caped
crusader’s No 1 enemy is winning
copious accolades from the Fourth
Estate. But the press has also
speculated that the deeply dark role
played a hand in the death of the
Australian. those closest to Ledger
have responded with fervour.
co-star christian Bale, who plays
the Dark Knight said, “the idea heath
6 / w w w. S ho r t LiSt.com
was disturbed by playing the Joker
is ridiculous. heath was somebody
who, like myself, acted for that
immersion in a character. it’s not an
unusual thing. And from working with
him and knowing him, i don’t think
that was unusual for him at all.”
michael caine, who plays Alfred,
also rejected claims that Ledger was
consumed by method acting. “he
was completely ordinary between
takes,” he says. “he wasn’t preparing
himself or saying, ‘Please leave
me alone, i’ve got to do this.’ we
would sit and chat and have a cup
of coffee, then suddenly they’d say,
‘we’re ready, heath,’ and he’d go
straight into the Joker.”
Gary oldman (commissioner
Gordon) added: “he was a lovely kid.
Between takes, he wanted to laugh...
[his death] was a silly accident.
A cosmic sh*t-hammer – just one
of those things that happens.”
this Joker is, in Ledger’s words,
a “psychopathic, mass-murdering,
schizophrenic clown with zero
empathy”, far removed from
Nicholson’s grinning, wise-cracking
villain in the original Batman. to
achieve the necessary mental
dislocation, Ledger spent a month
alone in a hotel room, working on his
character, voice and demonic laugh.
The Dark Knight opens in cinemas
on 24 July
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When asked, “Why Ledger as
The Joker?” director Christopher
Nolan said: “Because he’s fearless”
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