Christian Bale says it was a pleasure to have worked with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight | Pretty Reel

One of the greatest triumphs and tragedies of Christopher Nolan’s 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 on-screen roles, it has never been denied that Ledger was an actor of the highest caliber, and where his career might have taken him is something that has unfortunately never been known. Christian Bale recently recalled working with Ledger on the film, telling GQ:

“Heath Ledger, oh my, what a performance. What a pleasure to have been able to work with him, and just to see him and how invested he was in the Joker. And I was watching him say, ‘Yeah, that’s absolutely fantastic. Are we in trouble here? When Chris [Nolan] and I sat down first, we thought, the problem with Batman is that the bad guys are always more interesting, right? And so Batman, actually, he’s very close to being a villain himself. So let’s never let it get boring in comparison, and unfortunately I was sitting there saying, ‘I feel a little boring in comparison because Heath is killing this. But I’m so proud of this film, I love it, The Dark Knight is absolutely amazing, and it was such a pleasure to have worked with Heath.

Heath Ledger is one of many stars to make the Joker their own

Some characters can be played on screen by an actor, and that role is ruined for anyone trying to take it back. This has been the case with many movie villains such as Freddy Krueger, but when it comes to the Joker, there has never been a particular actor who defined the role, which was proven by Ledger and then Joaquin Phoenix.

When Jack Nicholson became the first person to play Joker in 1989’s Batman, his over-the-top comic book style seemed like the perfect embodiment of the Clown Prince of Crime. It saw a huge outpouring of negativity from fans when it was announced that Heath Ledger would be playing the role in the second film in Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, but those naysayers were quickly silenced when Ledger said. presented its booth at the opening of The Dark Knight. With a more grounded approach to the character, which came with a malevolent glee that worked so well in the grittier, dirtier version of Gotham, Ledger brought reality to the character that had been absent from Tim Burton’s iteration with Nicholas.

Now, of course, there are more and more new Jokers to consider. Jared Leto’s Suicide Squad Joker got a bad rap and could have been different, as briefly seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Joaquin Phoenix brought a completely real-life iteration to the screen in the $1 billion movie. bucks Joker, which is now getting a sequel that will see Phoenix be the first actor to play two Joker roles, and of course Barry Keoghan should be cast as the Joker in the Robert Pattinson-directed The Batman sequel.