By Kofi Outlaw
For all its fun indulgences,
viral movie marketing can’t match the rewards of getting information straight from the horse’s mouth.
MTV news sat down last with Heath Ledger last week, to pick the actor’s brain on his latest role as the Joker in BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT, which is just finishing its
principal shoot.
When asked about how it felt to embody the psychotic character of the clown prince of crime, Ledger said “It’s the most fun I’ve had with a character and probably will ever have…”
However, the actor also admitted that he was glad his turn as the Joker was coming to a close: “It was an exhausting process. At the end of the day I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I was absolutely wrecked.”
Now while I enjoyed Jack Nicholson’s raucous turn as the Joker in 1989’s BATMAN, I always felt (as a recovering comic book addict) that Mark Hamill’s voice-work as the Joker on BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES was truer to the Clown Prince’s sociopathic pathology. Imagine my delight then, to hear that one of Ledger’s major goals for his Joker was “to scare the crap out of audiences” by amping the villain’s sadism to new levels. As Ledger puts it:
“He has zero empathy… A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether.”
The interviewer then pressed Ledger about his influences for the Joker and a few names got tossed around, punk rocker Sid Vicious being the most notable name.
“Yeah I guess…” attested Ledger. “There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent.” [He] quickly added with a smile, “There are a few more surprises to him.”
Something in me can envision Heath Ledger cackling maniacally right after saying that. Chills, chills. With early praise for his performance, it seems Mr. Ledger is shaping up to be quite the actor of his generation. In the battle of the Jokers, are you siding with team Heath, or team Jack? Granted one has yet to showcase his performance, but something tells me you already have an opinion. Rant back and let us know what it is.