One of Christopher Nolan’s greatest triumphs and tragedies The Dark Knight was Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as the Joker. While Ledger’s untimely death made the performance one of his last screen roles, there was no denying that Ledger was an actor of the highest caliber, and where his career could have taken him is something that would sadly never be known. Christian Bale recently reminisced about working with Ledger on the film, saying: GQ:
“Heath Ledger, oh my God, what a performance. What a pleasure to have worked with him, and to see him and how much he put into the Joker. And I saw him say, ‘Yeah, this is absolutely fantastic. Are we in trouble here?’ When Chris [Nolan] and I sat down first, we said, the problem with Batman is that the villains are always more interesting, right? And so Batman is actually very close to being a villain himself. So let’s never let him get boring in comparison, and unfortunately I sat there and thought, ‘I feel a little boring in comparison because Heath just kills this.’ But I’m so proud of that movie, I love it, The Dark Knight is absolutely extraordinary, and it was so much fun working with Heath.”
Heath Ledger is one of the many stars who made the Joker his own
There are certain characters that can be played on screen by one actor, and that role gets ruined for someone else trying to take it over. This is true of many movie villains such as Freddy Krueger, but when it comes to the Joker, there has never been one particular actor who set the role, something which has been proven by Ledger and then by Joaquin Phoenix.
When Jack Nicholson became the first person to play Joker in 1989 Batman, his over-the-top comic book style seemed like the perfect embodiment of the Clown Prince of Crime. That caused a huge wave of negativity from fans when it was announced that Heath Ledger would be taking on the role in Chris Nolan’s second film. Dark Knight trilogy, but those naysayers were quickly silenced when Ledger set up his booth in the opening of The Dark Knight. Taking a more grounded approach to the character, which came with an evil glee that worked just as well in the rougher, dirtier version of Gotham, Ledger brought a reality to the character that was absent from Tim Burton’s iteration with Nicholson.
Now, of course, there are more and more new Jokers to consider. Jared Letos suicide squad Joker got a bad rap and could have been different as seen briefly in Zack Snyder’s Justice LeagueJoaquin Phoenix Brought An All-Real-World Iteration To The Screen In The $1 Billion Movie jokerwhich is now getting a sequel in which Phoenix will be the first actor to play two Joker roles, and of course Barry Keoghan is expected to be seen as the Joker in the sequel to the Robert Pattinson-led the batter.