It is still eight long months away until the most anticipated movie of 2008 arrives in theatres, but finally there is more information and more talk about the highly secretive film, The Dark Knight.
IESB had the privilege to talk to Mr. Heath Ledger on his role as the most infamous Batman villain, The Joker. Here’s an excerpt from the interview courtesy of IESB:
IESB: You’re going right from I’m Not There where you have to put your spin on a character set up by other actors and right into Batman where the Joker has been done by not only Jack Nicholson but Cesar Romero, etc as well as the comics. Does it compare at all?
LEDGER: I really don’t know. It’s like chalk and cheese. My preparation process for this and my process for the Joker are completely different. I mean, for the Joker I locked myself away in a hotel room for six weeks. I just formulated a voice and a posture and found a real psychology behind the Joker. I really put a lot of work into it. And the experience also on a production scale, by the way, is obviously a completely different shoot. Batman is just such a machine. It’s huge and I’ve never worked on anything that big. And the movie is going to be surprisingly good! It’s far exceeded my expectations.
IESB: Were there any specific comics you based your version off of?
LEDGER: Well, The Killing Joke is the one that’s being passed around and Arkham Asylum kind of. But I really tried to read the comics and put it down. You know, I was a big fan of Jack Nicholson – still am – his portrayal of the Joker was perfect for Tim Burton’s world and if Tim Burton had come to me and he was doing the sequel and he asked me to play the Joker in his movie, I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t. Because you couldn’t touch what Jack Nicholson did. It would be a crime. When Chris came to me, I’d already seen Batman Begins and I really liked it. Because I’d already seen it, I already knew the world, which he had created. I instantly knew of an angle. I instantly knew a way into this character. A way to create a character to fit into this world and so it was fairly immediate. I’ve got straight away the fact that we’re both on the same page in terms of where we want it to be. But I guess we have to wait and see. I haven’t seen any of it yet.
I have to admit, when I had initially heard Heath Ledger was going to play The Joker, I was baffled by the casting choice.(I was hoping for Crispin Glover to get the role) I kept comparing him to Jack Nicholson, and from his interview he pointed out that is something that fans shouldn’t do. After seeing a few menacing pictures of Ledger and hearing very positive things so far about his look and portrayal of The Joker, I have had a change of heart. I am looking forward to seeing this man play The Joker and hopefully wowing audiences worldwide.
You can check IESB later this week for the full exclusive interview with Heath Ledger.
