Heath Ledger’s turn as The Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight remains one of the most chilling performances of this century, the actor eventually winning a posthumous Oscar for the defining portrayal of The Clown Prince of Crime. Based on peeks and teases, we knew we would be in for something special when the film came out. And so did Ledger himself, fully aware just how powerful the performance and The Dark Knight would be.
Recounting working with Heath Ledger on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Andrew Garfield (Anton) remembered the star telling him about his go as The Joker. “He had just done the Joker, he had just finished doing The Dark Knight, and he was so smug about it. I was like, ‘How did that go?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really good.’”
However, Heath Ledger wouldn’t find everything to be funny surrounding the promotion of The Dark Knight, especially with how some publications were depicting The Joker. “I remember his like, Empire magazine cover came out and he was like, ‘Oh, they used a f*cking sh*t photo. And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, dude that looks f*cking incredible.’ And he was like, ‘Nah, the pose is all wrong, it looks kinda like a conventional version of what an actor…you’ll see.’ And yeah, I did see.” The cover in question, from Empire’s January 2008 edition, is a still from the scene where Ledger’s The Joker is in jail, accompanied by the insanely corny text, “He’s a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown!” Yeah, we can see why he took issue with it…
Tragically, Heath Ledger would never see the theatrical version of The Dark Knight, dying six months before its release. He would become only the second – and is the most recent – actor to win an Academy Award posthumously. Ledger has another Oscar distinction, as his and Joaquin Phoenix’s wins for playing The Joker made them the second pair to nab statues for playing the same character. The first was Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro for Vito Corleone; they would later be joined by Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose for West Side Story’s Anita.
Heath Ledger died during the making of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, with the likes of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and future fellow Batman villain Colin Farrell standing in for his character.
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