Christopher Nolan discusses Heath Ledger’s ‘ unpredictability’ as Joker in ‘Dark Knight’
This year marks the 10th anniversary of The Dark Knight, a comic book movie that still resonates with audiences today.
The middle chapter in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy wasn’t just a testament of comic book movie filmmaking, but a testament of filmmaking as a whole, in large part due to the incredible portrayal of Joker by the late Heath Ledger.
“A lot of what Heath did, he would discuss with me — he would sort of give me hints of what he was going to do, and we would talk about it a bit, and I would try and be an audience or sort of gauge with him. But a lot of it was about unpredictability, and I think he wanted to play his cards a little close to the chest. So he would very gradually reveal to me the voice and the way he was going to do things, but not in one go, ‘Like here’s the Joker.’
“On set, there were always moments like the clapping, or things he would do with his voice. His voice was so unpredictable. He created this bizarre pitch that I’ve seen a lot people try to imitate it since. You never quite knew whether he was going to go high or was going to go low. You never knew what that guy was going to do, and that’s what was terrifying about it.”
photo courtesy Fathom Events
Sadly, the bar was raised too high and the follow-up film, The Dark Knight Rises, could never live up to that high mark that Heath Ledger set. As great of an actor as Tom Hardy is, his Bane wasn’t able to make it work as well, and despite the film still being solid, it disappointed many fans.
photo courtesy Fathom Events
photo courtesy Fathom Events
