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| The Truthful Story Of Heath Ledger's Joker in English |
The Truthful Story Of Heath Ledger's Joker in English | TAMIL POSTS
Heath Ledger's Joker is arguably the greatest comic book movie villain of all time at the very least the antagonist from 2008's The Dark Knight is right up there with the likes of Terrence stamps General Zod Ian McKellen's magneto and Tom Hiddleston's Loki in contention for that title in this documentary will chronicle
the story of Ledger's journey as the iconic character from beginning to end in fascinating detail don't forget to hit the subscribe button
it's the best way of keeping up to date with all of the screens rants great new videos Ledger's story as far as his most iconic role was concerned would ultimately end in tragedy but it was also a hugely interesting one
the Joker was already an absolutely iconic character before Ledger portrayed him arguably the most iconic supervillain in fiction in fact having been played by the likes of Cesar Romero in the 1960s Batman TV series Jack Nicholson and Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie
Jared Leto in 2016 Suicide Squad and Luke Skywalker himself Mark Hamill who voices the animated version of the character to this day having started doing so way back in 1992
the character will also be played next year in the first-ever Joker standalone movie with Joaquin Phoenix taking on the role and it remains to be seen whether or not he can come close to Ledger's level of performance
while Phoenix is undoubtedly an incredibly talented top-tier actor he's got some very big shoes to fill excitement was about the Joker that would face Christian Bale's Batman from the moment he was hinted at in the final scenes of 2005's
Batman Begins Gary Oldman's James Gordon showed Batman a Joker playing card that an unnamed criminal had been leaving at crime scenes and it sent fans wild when DC and Warner Brothers began the search for their Joker for 2008 to the Dark Knight their list of potential actors to play the character didn't include the Australian ledger the search for the perfect actor was long and thorough and while the fans wanted to see the likes of Paul Bettany and Jude Law in the role it actually starred like Robin Williams Steve Carell Adrien Brody and Hugo Weaving who were the frontrunners
some of whom had quite openly expressed an interest in taking it wasn't actually until Leger met with Christopher Nolan about the possibility of playing two heroic men prior to 2005's Batman Begins that the idea of casting him
As the Clown Prince of Gotham was spawned the filmmakers wanted an actor who was not only talented but also fearless both of which were traits Leger had in spades and his casting was officially confirmed at the end of July 2006
Leger first became famous in his homeland Australia when he appeared in productions like the children's television series ship-to-shore drama series sweat and popular soap opera Home and away he starred in a few Australian movies then sought out a career in Hollywood but his appearances in comedies like a Knight's Tale certainly didn't have people imagining he'd go on to play the Joker given how brilliantly
the whole thing turned out the widespread scorn and outrage that occurred upon Ledger's casting seems like a lifetime ago and for some of us it's hard to imagine it occurring at all Christopher Nolan was roundly criticized for choosing the actor to play Batman's arch-nemesis at the expense of the other actors
we've just mentioned from some corners this stank of homophobia as some supposed fans believed he was unsuitable for the role because of his previous portrayal as the closeted gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar and Brokeback Mountain the year before despite the fact that said role earned him an Oscar nomination more level-headed rational skepticism came from people who believed that pretty boy Ledger who had risen to fame as a teen heartthrob wouldn't be able to bring sufficient malice to the twisted character
Heath Ledger's face says boy next door was one comment even those who remember him as bad boy Patrick Verona from the teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You found it difficult to picture him as a psychotic comic-book movie villain others simply believed he didn't carry the weight necessary to play this crucial role that misplaced prejudice and doubt was so widespread and in many cases so vitriolic
that some people thought ledger would be replaced by somebody else and if truth be told even the producers and the studio behind the movie didn't get the casting thankfully however after all the hate and uncertainty ledger remained in the role
once ledger was cast screenwriter Jonathan Nolan Christopher Nolan's younger brother took his time to flesh out the character Jonathan was actually one of the people who doubted Ledger's suitability for the role but after a heck of a lot of research into the characters historical portrayals he went on to suggest that a crucial influence on how the Joker was depicted in the movie should come from the characters first two appearances in Batman makes from 1940 Christopher also had Jonathan watch fritz lang's 1933 crime film the testament of dr. Mabuse prior to writing the part of the Joker with the intention being that Joker should have some of maybe uses characteristics
in fact, Christopher Nolan referred to Lang's film as essential research for anyone attempting to write a supervillain, Jerry Robinson, one of the Joker's co-creators was also a consultant on the portrayal of the character so it's fair to say that Nolan's did everything they could to get the villain right regarding Ledger himself as well as adhering to the suggestions of the Nolan brothers the actor wanted to make sure that he differentiated his version of the character from that of Jack Nicholson's 1989 version
the most recent previous live-action Joker who was, of course, iconic in his own right when the idea was first presented to Leger he said he knew just five seconds later how he was gonna play it and singer-songwriter Tom Waits must have come to his mind immediately Ledger's Joker's mannerisms and voice was practically identical to those of weights specifically how he was in a 1979 TV interview weights was and still is a very cool guy but boy was his demeanor and the way he sounded incredibly unsettling in order to perfect
what he correctly believed would be a refreshing and unique version of the Joker Leger went to some bizarre extremes he was no stranger to method acting and he took his commitment to the role almost ludicrously seriously being cast before the script was written meant he had a very long time to obsess about it and really figure out exactly how he was going to go about playing Christopher Nolan had him read Anthony Burgess's a Clockwork Orange and study the paintings of Francis Bacon to provide him with some chaotic and emotionally charged
inspiration Johnny Rotten Sid Vicious and ventriloquist dummies were also discussed as potential influences for the characters portrayal months before production began on the Dark Knight Ledger retreated to a hotel room and isolated himself from society at which point he spent time writing a Joker diary and putting together disturbing image collages to help him get inside
the character's head in 2007 the actor spoke to Empire online from the movie set and explained it in his own words saying 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 and 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 act ledger even played a big part in creating the characters costume it was never just a case of putting him in that purple suit and saying Ben you're the Joker now over a long period of time he worked with costume designer Lindy hemming makeup artist John keg Leone and indeed Christopher Nolan to get everything down to the characters shoes absolutely perfect when production finally began ledger would be on set every day in full costume and makeup but contrary to common opinion he wasn't always in character though he could occasionally be seen snarling to himself in a corner as the Joker even when the camera wasn't rolling ledger would allegedly smoke cigarettes generally goof around and give out bear hugs to the cast and crew at both the beginning and end of every workday when it was time to get into character for filming however ledger had his Joker diary close by and reading it would enable him to bring the character out at will as he threw himself into the movie his sleep began to suffer the actor told the New York Times that while the movie was in production he probably slept an average of two hours a night describing how he couldn't stop thinking and how his body was exhausted but his mind was still going he became Restless in everyday life and also started taking ambien to help him sleep which some people believe represented the start of a downward spiral but he was still making a huge impression on his co-stars Christian Bale said of ledger that he'd turned up and just kind of completely ruined all my plans because I'm like he's so much more interesting than me and what I'm doing bill revealed that in the movies famous interrogation scene the first scene the two actors actually filmed together when Ledger's Joker yelled hit me ledger really meant it he wanted Bale to hit him as hard as he could to make the scene look as real as possible in fact the room in which the scene was filmed had tiled walls and ledger was slamming himself around it with such commitment that the tiles were actually cracked and dented as a result meanwhile Michael Kane was so unsettled by Ledger's in character presence that the legendary Brit completely forgot his lines at one point when the first trailer for the movie was released in December of 2007 those whose initial knee-jerk reactions to Ledger's casting were reactions of disgust began to question themselves and fears about him not being up to the task began to dissipate the Joker was the biggest talking point of the trailer his voice his his look his mannerisms and his now iconic why so serious line all made it into trailer one and the vast majority of people who saw it could see that something special was in the works the finer details of his performance the ones that would ultimately earn him so much posthumous praise like the licking and smacking of his lips for example were already evident and excitement for the Dark Knight went up a notch as a direct result of it in spite of what he went through on a personal level during the production of The Dark Knight Ledger said in multiple interviews that it was the most fun he'd ever had playing a character and in one interview he said it was the most fun he probably ever would have with a role in hindsight this was a very poignant statement that really resonates now that he's no longer with us On January 22nd in 2008 Heath Ledger was found dead he was found by his housekeeper and a masseuse in bed in his Manhattan loft four months after production of The Dark Knight wrapped and six months before it was due to be released in theaters Ledger was only 28 years old and he would never get to see the final product of his labors or the global reaction to his iconic performance while the cause of his death was officially ruled as being an accidental overdose of prescription pills specifically a toxic cocktail of the painkiller oxycodone and the minor tranquilizer alprazolam rumors were rife that getting so into his performance as the Joker had taken its toll on him contributing to or even being the prime cause of his death at the time of his death Leger was filming 2009 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus a movie in which he played a character called Tony production was obviously severely disrupted by the tragedy not least because Ledger's involvement had been a key factor in the film's financing the movie's director Terry Gilliam was presiding over concept art when he was informed by telephone of Ledger's passing his initial thought about the production was the film's over it's as simple as that and production was initially suspended indefinitely by January 24th while the whole situation was mulled over at first Gilliam wanted to salvage the movie by using computer-generated imagery to make Ledger's character magically change his appearance perhaps into another character the idea was for the imagery to be similar to transformation techniques seen on Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and those employed on Roy Scheider's performance in his posthumous release Iron Cross eventually however a list actors Johnny Depp Colin Farrell and Jude Law were cast to replace Heath Ledger in certain scenes portraying the new idea of transformed versions of Ledger's characters traveling through magical realms while the footage shot with ledger would remain in the film as his characters real-world appearance when previous Joker portrayer Jack Nicholson was told about Ledger's death on camera he responded by saying I warned him prompting the world to believe that getting into such a psychotic character's head was a dangerous job to do however a few days later Nicholson clarified that he was referring to the sleeping pills found next to Ledger's body saying I didn't know Heath Ledger but I know those pills however some people still believe he really did mean that playing the Joker can have a dark effect on an actor and that his belated clarification was made half Hazzard Lee about a week after Ledger's death popular magazine Us Weekly reported that Michelle Williams had wanted to start to go to rehab in 2006 when the then couple's daughter was just five months old so it was no secret that he'd struggled with drugs Ledger and Williams had fallen for each other during the filming of Brokeback Mountain and for a time they looked and sounded head over heels for each other at every festival and red-carpet event they attended in support of their movie they split in 2007 however in the 2017 documentary I am Heath Ledger Keith's sister Kate seemed to confirm the idea that medication had been a problem in his life while vehemently denying that the Joker role had anything to do with his death Kate whose last conversation with her brother involved her warning him about mixing drugs said of the rule potentially being the cause of his death he had an amazing sense of humor and certainly playing the Joker for him it was one big gag he had so much fun doing that it was actually the exact opposite Ledger's funeral took place in Perth Australia on February 9th at Penrose college a private girls school and more than six hundred people attended actress Cate
Blanchett Keith's parents and his sister gave moving eulogies at the memorial service while the likes of Bryan Brown Joel Edgerton Rose Byrne and supermodel Gemma Ward were among those present at the ceremony regardless of what really happened Ledger's death was undoubtedly tragic for a man so beloved so young and so incredibly talented to leave us was not only a loss to the world of acting it was a loss to the world in general he was a father a son and a heartthrob to millions of teens who had posters have been plastered all their bedroom walls since his death the outpouring of grief and respect has been overwhelming nobody has a bad word to say about him gary oldman who played Jim Gordon in the Dark Knight said Ledger was a sweet guy who used charisma aaron eckhart who played Harvey Dent called him just a really great guy Maggie Gyllenhaal who played Rachel Dawes said she could see that something remarkable was going on when Leger was playing the Joker Michael Caine who played Alfred Pennyworth and famously forgot his lines upon seeing Ledger's Joker for the first time used words like incredible and inventive to describe him Christopher Nolan said that what he did with the character was nothing short of phenomenal and that had mesmerised him and he could see that that was the case from the moment Leger stepped into the role The Dark Knight himself Christian Bale said he did a damn good job as the Joker that he misses him deeply and completely dismissed the idea that the Dark Knight shouldn't be released insisting that Ledger's talent should be celebrated and that he'd want his performance to be seen Matt Damon who co-starred with Ledger in 2005 the Brothers Grimm described him as a really really special guy too bright for this world and the best actor he ever worked with Australian actor bud ting well who worked with ledger on 2003's Ned Kelly said he was right up there with the best actors he'd ever worked with another fellow Australian Michael Keaton called ledger brilliant but modest and one of a handful of the most daring and watchable actors on the planet and Michael Keaton who played Batman in two movies in 1989 and 1992 described Ledger's performance as the Joker as unbelievable and extraordinary we could go on the outpouring of grief and admiration for ledger came from all corners of the globe
but it wasn't only his colleagues and fellow actors who loved ledger and what he did with the Joker when the movie was released in July of 2008
fans were incredibly impressed with his performance and of course, so were the critics and the powers that be in Hollywood's awards scene the Dark Knight brought in more than 158 million dollars in its opening weekend and went on to gross more than 1 billion dollars worldwide it's still the 36th highest-grossing movie of all time Ledger's performance resulted in a near clean sweep of Gong's in the following awards season including an Australian Film Institute award a British Academy Film Award a Golden Globe Award a People's Choice Award as award a scream Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award however one definitely stood out over the others in February of 2009 at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles Leger was posthumously announced as the winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar beating the likes of Josh Brolin Robert Downey jr. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Shannon to the prestigious honor following talks with his family in Australia the Academy came to the decision that Ledger's daughter Matilda Rose ledger would own the award however due to her age she wouldn't gain full ownership of the statuette until her 18th birthday in 2023 until that time her mother the aforementioned actress Michelle Williams would keep hold of it and Trust for Matilda Ledger's family attended the ceremony and both his parents and sister accepted the award on stage
on his behalf while some harsh individuals suggested the Oscar only went to Leger because he passed away the vast majority believed it to be fully deserved and we had to say we're part of that crowd more than 10 years on Ledger's legacy lives on most prominently for most fans in the form of his most celebrated performance that of the Joker the internet is full of top-10 type lists featuring movie super villains and if Ledger's Joker isn't at the very top of them it's always damn close to being so his line why so serious is right up there with the most iconic in movie history possibly even more so than Jack Nicholson's ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight Ledger's Joker inspired so many people both in terms of his fans and indeed when it came to making some other movies and to this day he is considered not only to be the best version of the character and one of the best comic book movie villains but also one of the best villains in movie history period he's right up there with the likes of Darth Vader Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Krueger in 2016
the most recent Joker Jared Leto who himself is a phenomenal oscar-winning actor said Ledger's iconic portrayal of the bank robbing dollar bill burning Psychopaths helped him perfect his version of the character he also described Ledger's portrayal as an impeccable perfect performance and one of the best performances ever in cinema he also met him a couple of times and described him as a beautiful person his family closest friends and co-stars have done a fantastic job in honoring him and they're all determined to make the work he left behind take center stage not one person who loved which seems to be everyone who ever knew him wants to see him defined by his demise but instead by the life he lived and the extension of himself that he left behind his daughter Matilda thought Sal be it futile ones about what might have been with regards to the actor had he still been alive today are constantly conceived what sort of father would he have been would he and Michele Williams have ever patched things up what sort of acting roles would he have taken and just how good of an actor could he have gone on to be prior to Ledger's death there were rumors that the Joker was set to appear in 2012's
The Dark Knight Rises the final movie in the Dark Knight trilogy in which Tom Hardy's Bane was the main villain and it would have been interesting to see how he would have slotted in and whether or not the actor could have improved upon
his impeccable first performance as the villain all of that will forever remain a mystery but the memories he left us all width will undoubtedly endure and it's hard to see any comic book movie villain stopping his Joker anytime soon but we certainly wish Joaquin Phoenix luck with his portrayal of the same character next year and it has to be said that the positive reactions to the first shot of his version of the character have actually been very reminiscent to those of Ledger's
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