Movie: The Dark Knight Character: The Joker Nature: a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. (Chaotic), upset social order through crime Characteristics: The Glasgow Smile Impersonated by: Heath Ledger Character Development: To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the characters posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Jokers thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike Jack Nicholsons character in Tim Burtons 1989 Batman film.Ledger was allowed to shoot and mostly direct the videos the Joker sends out as warnings. Each take Ledger made was different from the last. Nolan was impressed enough with the first video shoot that he chose to not be present when Ledger shot the video with a kidnapped reporter (Anthony Michael Hall). On January 22, 2008, after he had completed filming The Dark Knight, Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose, leading to intense press attention and memorial tributes. It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day [during editing], Nolan recalled. But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish.All of Ledgers scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no digital effects to alter Ledgers actual performance posthumously.Nolan has dedicated the film in part to Ledgers memory. Ledger told Empire how he prepared for the role: I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices – it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath – someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts; after reiterating his view of the character as just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, he added that Nolan had given him free rein to create the role, which he found fun, because there are no real boundaries to what the Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke.[3]
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:37:16 +0000
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