How Heath Ledger prepared for the role of the Joker. Negative impact of playing the Joker

Cinematography. This effect is achieved not by a frightening appearance; on the contrary, the villain uses makeup and costumes to a minimum. The danger comes from his unpredictable actions, which often lack logic.

Some viewers who saw the legendary blockbuster about Batman for the first time do not know who played the Joker in The Dark Knight. All the most interesting things about this character and the actor who brilliantly embodied his image on the screen are in our article.

Joker story

This negative character first appeared in the pages of comics from DC Comics. He is one of Batman's main enemies. His costume and weapons are stylized as clown equipment. The Joker from The Dark Knight is a complete mystery. His past remains a mystery. He has existed in the pages of comics for more than 70 years, but who he is and how he became a supervillain is unknown. There are several versions of the appearance of the Joker. According to one of them, he was either a petty gangster or a failed illusionist who joined the criminal group. One day, while attempting a robbery, the villains encountered the police and Batman. In the shootout, everyone died except one criminal, who fell into a vat of chemicals. He survived, but his face and hair were disfigured by the acid, and the unfortunate man lost his mind after the incident. He called himself the Joker. So Batman has a new enemy.

The second version of the Joker's past is associated with the 1989 film Batman. The future villain's name was Jack Napier. He was the main assistant to a dangerous gangster who learned about the Joker's relationship with his wife. He betrays his partner, and he falls into a vat of acid. Jack survived, but was disfigured: his skin became pale, his hair turned green, and his nails turned black. He turned to a plastic surgeon for help, but due to poor quality work, he suffered muscle damage, and a smile was forever frozen on Napier’s face. In the same film, Batman recognizes his new enemy as the criminal who killed his parents.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker talks about two versions of the appearance of his terrible scars. First he says that he was mutilated by his own father, and then he says that he inflicted the wounds on himself because of problems in his family life.

Film "The Dark Knight" - Heath Ledger as the Joker

Paintings "Batman Begins". The film was released in 2008. The director of this and the previous film is Christopher Nolan. He also directed the last part of the trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises.” The Joker from The Dark Knight immediately captured the attention of audiences. He was strikingly different from the images that Cesar Romero and the Last embodied on the screen at one time were clamped by the strict framework of the script. Their villains are good in their own way, but they lack some insanity.

Many people did not recognize who played the Joker in The Dark Knight because of the makeup. The news that this image was created and brilliantly embodied by the young actor Heath Ledger surprised even his fans. He already had to play different roles - a criminal robbing banks to help impoverished farmers, a cowboy in love with his partner, a noble knight, petty swindler, who, together with his brother, uses the superstitions of German peasants for profit. But this was Ledger’s first time playing the role of a truly crazy criminal.

Appearance, psychology and abilities of the villain

The character's story was changed for the film. He lost his name, but appearance remained virtually unchanged. For realism, the Joker's face is covered with sloppy makeup, which is almost absent in some scenes. Instead of a painted clown smile, there are two scars stretching from the corners of the mouth to the ears. We left the character with long light green hair and around the eyes.

The Joker from The Dark Knight is a psychopath, maniac and schizophrenic. At the same time he has highest intelligence. The villain is a brilliant planner with a keen understanding of the psychology and motivations of other people. Therefore, even the astute Batman could not foil many of his plans.

Preparing an actor for a role

Heath Ledger took the work on creating the image of his hero extremely seriously. To do this, he locked himself in a hotel room for a month so that nothing would distract him. It was necessary to come up with a gait, a demeanor, distinctive features and the voice of a criminal. The Joker in the film “The Dark Knight,” according to the actor’s idea, was supposed to instill real fear in the viewer. It was necessary for everyone to believe that the villain was not bluffing and was not deliberately causing horror, but was enjoying what was happening.

The most difficult thing for the actor was the voice and intonation of his character. In the end, he combined in this image of a cinematic villain the traits and demeanor of Nicholson's Joker, Alex from " A Clockwork Orange"and Sid Vicious (musician from Scandalous famous group Sex Pistols).

Good dubbing is one of the components of a film’s success

There is a lot in the positive perception of the hero (especially if we're talking about about foreign film) depends on the quality of the voice acting. Few people know who voiced the Joker in The Dark Knight. The work was extremely difficult - it was necessary to choose the right intonation of the character. Heath Ledger worked a lot on his hero's voice, so it was important to convey all its shades correctly. The Joker was voiced by an actor who coped with the difficult task superbly.

New Joker story - who will replace Ledger

A new film based on the Batman universe, Suicide Squad, is scheduled for release in 2016. The main characters in the film will be supervillains. The film wouldn't be complete without the Joker. As has already become known, Jared Leto will play him.

Negative impact of playing the Joker

The actor's last fully completed film was the blockbuster The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger gave it his all. As he admitted in an interview, the role of the Joker, a psychopathic maniac, was given to him with with great difficulty. The exhaustion was not physical, but psychological. Ledger began to sleep only 2 hours a day, which further worsened his condition. The separation from the mother of his daughter also had a negative impact on the actor.

On January 22, 2008, the actor was found lifeless in his Manhattan apartment. Death occurred from acute intoxication as a result of taking several drugs: painkillers, tranquilizers and analgesics. The actor slept very poorly and was treated for pneumonia. The dose of medication he took turned out to be fatal. Heath Ledger was only 28 years old at the time of his death. The role of the Joker was appreciated - the actor posthumously received an Oscar for it.

It cannot be said that his portrayal of the Joker is to blame for the actor’s death. It only became one of the reasons that influenced Ledger’s psycho-emotional and physical state. But this does not make the image of a psychopathic maniac any less sinister.

Eight years have passed since the release of Heath Ledger's last completed film, and we still miss the actor and the magnificent image of the Joker that he gave to the world in the film " The Dark Knight" We decided to remember how the actor prepared for the role and how his last days on the set went.

Frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. To really get into the role, the actor spent 43 days in a motel all alone. We all know very well how crazy and “broken” the Joker is - it’s scary to imagine what was going on in Ledger’s head during these days of voluntary imprisonment.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was greatly influenced by Malcolm McDowell's character Alex DeLarge from Stanley Kubrick's film " A Clockwork Orange"(1971). He copied his gestures and facial expressions, including the well-known “Kubrick look.”

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. One of these scenes is the Joker's sarcastic applause when Gordon gets promoted. This moment was not in the script, but director Christopher Nolan ordered the cameramen to continue filming, and eventually inserted the scene into the film. The second time Ledger had to think on his feet was in the hospital explosion scene. The moment with the faulty remote control is pure improvisation by the actor.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. In this diary, he kept newspaper clippings with tragic news, photographs of Alex DeLarge, a hyena and a smiling clown. The actor carried this diary with him everywhere in order to remind himself at the right moment what a dark and sadistic character he was playing.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Initially, Heath Ledger auditioned for the role of Batman, but, as we all know, this role went to Christian Bale. Fortunately, Christopher Nolan remembered the actor and invited him to play the Joker in his next project.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Do you remember the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight? So Ledger, it turns out, personally insisted that Christian Bale hit him as hard as possible to make the scene authentic. The act of a true Joker!

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. From the first look at the Joker at the beginning of the film, we know that there is something wrong with this guy. His manners, facial expressions, gestures - everything indicates that he is a very strange character. One of its distinctive features is the habit of constantly licking its lips. It turns out that this was a real habit of Ledger's, and he borrowed it for the role.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. The Joker has been embodied more than once on big screen, but the most famous performers In addition to Ledger, this role includes Jack Nicholson, Cesar Romero and Jared Leto. All three actors were over forty when they played the iconic villain, while Ledger was only 28.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. For his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger not only achieved widespread acclaim and accolades; he became the first actor in history to win an Academy Award for his role in a superhero film. But the actor never saw the coveted statuette - at the award ceremony it was presented to members of his family.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Actors Michael Caine and Maggie Gyllenhaal did not see Ledger in makeup until filming the Wayne Enterprises party scene. The image frightened Kane so much that he forgot the words, and Gyllenhaal could not look at him at all.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Sir Michael Caine has a high opinion of Ledger's Joker. He even said that the actor outdid Nicholson and his performance as the Joker in 1989's Batman. “Jack was a clown, good-natured, but perverted - an old killer uncle. He could become cheerful and make the viewer laugh. "Heath went in the complete opposite direction, he portrayed a really scary psychopath."

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Director Christopher Nolan from the very beginning wanted to see only Ledger in the image of the Joker and fought to the last, but the film studio still decided to first offer the role to other candidates. These included Steve Carell, Adrien Brody, Robin Williams and Paul Bettany.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Let's be honest, this is largely due to Heath Ledger and his brilliant performance as the Joker.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. The actor drew sketches of what he wanted the Joker's makeup to look like and presented them to the makeup artist. Guided by the drawings, the artist made up Ledger, and the actor spent the first days of filming with clown face of his own authorship. The make-up team later made some changes to the design, but the original idea came from Ledger.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. The actor died before the film was edited and completed, but he still managed to watch one scene before his death. Nolan personally edited the film's first bank robbery scene, and it was this scene that was shown to Ledger. The film's producer, Charles Rowan, later said that Ledger liked the scene so much that he watched it three times.

frame: Warner Bros. Pictures Co. Heath Ledger's death on January 22, 2008 was as sudden as it was tragic. The death of the actor raised many questions about the progress of filming, and soon Warner Bros. Pictures had to issue a statement that Ledger "completed all scenes during filming and performed all duties in post-production." Thus, the Joker became Heath Ledger's truly last, fully completed role.

Since the release of director Christopher Nolan's superhero blockbuster The Dark Knight "Ten years have passed [the Russian premiere of the film took place August 14, 2008], and Heath Ledger’s performance still remains one of the most outstanding in the history of comic book adaptations. When creating the superhero film, Christopher Nolan was inspired by the Joker's debut in comics in 1940, the graphic novel " Killing Joke"1988 and series" The Long Halloween» 1996. Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his impeccable performance as the Joker. Best Actor background"]. Previously, in an interview, Heath Ledger stated that he received a copy of “The Killing Joke” as important material for preparing for the role.

The book 100 Things Batman Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, which features Joseph McCabe's interviews with Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, is currently available for order. In particular, fans of the characters DC Comics and one of best films of all times in the history of cinema, they learn that during the iconic interrogation scene, Heath Ledger asked Christian Bale to beat him for real, so that everything that was happening seemed as realistic as possible.

What was it like working with Heath Ledger as the Joker?

Christian Bale: Our first scene together was in the interrogation room, and I saw that Heath Ledger is an incredible actor who is completely dedicated and committed to the job, and absolutely understands the tone that Chris [Nolan] was trying to create. We are not the kind of actors who enjoy playing a parody of a character. We considered " Dark Knight"as a serious drama. You start playing and stay in character. Love it. I've discovered that I love the ridiculous, and I take it seriously. Heath shared this completely. When he was in makeup and costume, he always remained in the image of the Joker; and once he took it all off, he became an absolutely nice guy.

In the [interrogation scene] of the film, Batman begins to beat up the Joker and realizes that this is no ordinary opponent. And the more I beat him, the more he liked it. The more satisfaction he received. Heath behaved very similarly. It was as if he was egging me on. I told him, “I don’t need to really hit you. It will look like I really hit you.” And he was like: “Come on, come on, come on...”. He himself hit the tiled walls in the interrogation room so that they left dents and cracks along them. He completely got used to the character of the Joker.

Have you ever been afraid that he will outplay you?

Christian Bale: No, absolutely not. Because that's exactly what I had problems with in all the other Batman films. Especially after reading Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and other graphic novels. I asked myself, “Well, how come Batman is always the most boring character?” I never found him to be a fascinating character, even though he was portrayed as the most interesting in these comics. I think that in Batman Begins we were able to show that he is a guy with a core. So I had no problem with him having competition. Because the movie will be better if there are other exciting characters in it.

Iconic interrogation scene from the superhero film "The Dark Knight"

What influenced Heath Ledger's performance?

Christopher Nolan: Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious - we talked about such punk things. We also discussed Alex in A Clockwork Orange. He is very anarchic and at the same time has great charisma - both in the book and in the film. We talked about the most different sources inspiration, and he spoke of such extraordinary things as ventriloquist's dolls. The way they move and the way they talk and other strange things that I couldn't even imagine - until I saw Heath start playing and showing how the Joker moves, gestures, talks in this incredibly unpredictable voice. And the intonation of the voice - from the highest to the lowest notes - is simply exceptional, and changes unpredictably and unexpectedly.

As for the tongue... Heath had a seal on his bottom lip and sometimes it would come off. I saw him trying to stick it back with his tongue, and only after several weeks of filming did I realize that he had appropriated this gesture for the character. It was incredibly interesting to edit Heath's game because he tried everything interesting facets, all manners. And I liked that they all suited the character. They can hardly be called acting techniques. I considered them genius manifestations of human nature.

You said you weren't a big comic book fan. What attracted you to The Dark Knight?

Heath Ledger: Yes, the only reason, which is why I wasn't a fan - I grew up in a family with girls. So we only had a few Batman comics. It [was] mostly Archie comics. So that's probably the only reason I grew up not reading Batman.

But I really enjoyed Batman Begins; and the Joker character is too good to pass up. I've said it before, but... if Tim Burton was making The Dark Knight and asked me to play the Joker, I would agree. Because trying to touch what Jack Nicholson did in Burton's film would be a crime. So when Chris [Nolan] came to me... I knew what he was like. He has already created a world for me. I saw what kind of world I would have to play in. I knew this world was open to new interpretation. I had the ace up my sleeve that Chris was looking for. We sat down and kind of started exchanging ideas, and they were the same. That's how we started working.

Journalist Joseph McCabe publishes a book 100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, which included an interview with Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale And Heath Ledger, which he took before the film's release "The Dark Knight". Ledger, we recall, played the Joker - and his interpretation is considered one of the outstanding. For his performance, the actor received an Oscar - unfortunately, posthumously: on January 22, 2008, Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and painkillers. McCabe managed to talk to him in November 2007, when Heath was promoting his other film "I'm not here", and with Nolan and Bale - already in 2008 before the release of The Dark Knight.

Here are excerpts from these interviews. Of course, since the release of “The Dark Knight”, almost everything is known about the creation of the picture and the characters; the film has become a legend, like Ledger’s Joker - but, nevertheless, it is always interesting to remember what the creators said.

What was it like working with Heath Ledger as the Joker?

Christian Bale: Our first scene together was in the interrogation room, and I saw that Heath is an amazing actor who is completely dedicated to the work and absolutely understands the tone that Chris Nolan wanted to create. We are not actors who enjoy playing a parody of a character, we treated the film as a serious drama. You start playing and stay in character. I love this. I realized that my love is an absurdity, but I take it seriously. And Heath had the same thing. When he was in makeup and costume, it was the Joker, all the time. As soon as he took it all off, he became the sweetest, sociable guy.

In the film, you see Batman begin to beat up the Joker and realize that this is no ordinary opponent. And you know, the more I beat him, the more he liked it. The more satisfaction he received - and Heath behaved accordingly. It was as if he was egging me on. I tell him: “You know, I don’t have to really hit you. It will still look like I really hit you.” And he was like: “Come on, come on, come on...” He himself hit these tiled walls so that cracks appeared along them. He completely got into the role.

Were you afraid that he would outplay you?

Christian Bale: Not at all. This is exactly what has been the problem with all the other Batman films. Especially when I read the comic Frank Miller "Batman: Year One" and other comics - I thought then: “Well, how come Batman is always the most boring character?” I never found him interesting - despite the fact that in these comics Batman was portrayed as the most incredible character. I think we were able to show that in Batman Begins - that he's a guy with a backbone. So I had no problem with him having competition. Because a movie can only benefit from having another amazing character in it.

What influenced Heath Ledger's work?

Christopher Nolan: Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious - these are the kinds of punk things we talked about. We also discussed Alex from "A Clockwork Orange": He is an anarchist and at the same time he has charisma, both in the book and in the film. We talked about all kinds of inspirations, Heath discussed with me these creepy ventriloquist dolls as one of them - the way they talk, the way they move. He talked about a bunch of the strangest things that I couldn’t even imagine - until I saw how Heath began to play and show how the Joker moves, gestures, talks in that unpredictable voice of his. This voice - from the highest to the lowest notes - is one big extreme, and it changes completely unexpectedly.

And this idea with the tongue... Heath had a pad on his lower lip that periodically came off. I saw him trying to stick it back with his tongue, and then realized after a few weeks of filming that he had appropriated the gesture for the character. Editing his performance then was incredibly interesting because he tried all the edges, all the mannerisms - and I loved the fact that they all suited the character. They don't look like acting techniques. For me these were brilliant manifestations of human nature.

You said you weren't a big comic book fan. What attracted you to The Dark Knight?

Heath Ledger: Yeah, the only reason I wasn't a fan was because I grew up in a house with girls. So we only had a few Batman comics. We mostly read Archie. So that's probably the only reason I grew up not reading Batman.