To date, the actor who has most convincingly played the role of Joker in a Batman movie has to be Heath Ledger. The late Australian actor was gifted with a special set of skills, using which he completely embodied the character that he played. The actor made his Hollywood debut with 10 Things I Hate About You and went on to work in hit films like Brokeback Mountain, Casanova, The Patriot, and more. He rose to stardom with Christopher Nolan’s film The Dark Knight.
In his short career span, the actor left an eternal mark in the history of Hollywood cinema. Ledger once revealed the reason for taking up the character of Joker.
Heath Ledger revealed his reason for playing Joker in The Dark Knight
In an interview with Jilloms, Ledger once shared that he was able to relate to the character of Joker. He understood that the character could be extraordinarily frightening and fresh and different than anything that had been done before. He was ready to do something huge by working with Christopher Nolan.
Ledger shared,
“I really loved Batman Begins and Joker the character of the Joker was just too good to turn down. I’ve said this before, but if Tim Burton was doing The Dark Knight and asked me to play the Joker I wouldn’t have taken it. To touch what Jack Nicholson did in Tim Burton’s world would be a crime.”
“So when Chris came to me, and I knew how Chris was, he’d already set up the world for me, I’d seen how in what world it was that I would be playing, and so I knew it was open for fresh interpretation.”
“I also instantly kind of had something up my sleeve which happened to be exactly what Chris was kind of looking for and we sat down and kind of shared ideas and the same and so we swim with it.”
Academy Award winner, Heath Ledger was widely appreciated for his role as Joker and he made the character iconic. The young actor passed away in 2008.
Heath Ledger felt obliged to be part of Christopher Nolan’s film
Heath Ledger shared in the interview that it was a huge thing for him to be cast in Christopher Nolan’s film. It was because the director did not make many movies and would wait a long time between films until he felt that he needed to go out and do something.
Ledger shared that the biggest challenge in taking up the role in the Batman films was taking on the icons who played the roles earlier. He shared,
“The biggest challenge in dealing with these three movies was definitely taking on these icons. I mean these characters have been beloved for decades, and they’ve been reinterpreted and worked on by great artists, writers, and other filmmakers over the years.”
“So that’s very frightening because you’re saying, ‘Okay I’m going out there, and I’m saying I’ve got a version of this that’s going to be different I’ve got a version of this that is worthwhile’. Then you’ve got to really deliver the goods. That’s been the biggest challenge for everybody involved with the film, I think from the technicians to the actors and so forth.”
The Dark Knight is available for streaming on Max.
Source- Youtube
