Heath Ledgerscooped up the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Critic’s Choice Awards last night for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. The film’s director Christopher Nolan accepted the award on his behalf. I hope this is only the beginning of the awards given out to Heath for his amazing portrayal of the Joker. Excuse me now while I go bawl in a corner.
The Dark Knight premiered last night and is steadily breaking records…And since I wasn’t able to get to see the movie I have Nick Wolfwood, who works with me at Backseat Cuddler, to tell you all about the awesome movie.
What makes a lunatic? What drives a person to conceive of and execute heinous acts? What makes a hero? Why does he fight for good? What does it take to change a man in a monster? Why does any of it matter? These are some of the questions that are explored unlike ever before. The very essence of evil, and the nature of the good-hearted are pitted against each other in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
This film floored me. I am truly amazed at the brilliance of the script, the vibrant performances and the razor sharp direction. Christopher Nolan has crafted not only the most solid comic book movie ever, but also quite easily, the best movie I’ve seen this year. His work with each detail of every scene is superb and well crafted.
The Dark Knight comes out in four days…and I’m getting super excited about it. And watching all the interviews on TV they have with the cast members is exciting but super depressing at the same time. Because when it comes to talk about The Joker the other members talk for Heath Ledger. Now, Oscar talk is in the works for Heath…
Michael Caine, one of Heath’s costars, says Heath was amazing in the role of The Joker. And when it was time to share the first scene with him he was floored at the performance.
The scene involved The Joker gatecrashing a black tie party.
What shocked Caine the most was that he was chatting with Ledger quietly before the scene and the Australian was quietly spoken, but when director Christopher Nolan called “action”, Ledger instantly switched into the slithering, despicable killer.
“I think it’s a performance, at a minimum, that is going to get a posthumous Oscar nomination,” Caine, who reprises his role as Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, said. “It must do. That performance was extraordinary. You look at Heath, or you talk to Heath, and you don’t know where the performance comes from. It’s not like he’s a big, noisy character or anything. He’s just a very nice guy and then suddenly action is called on set and bang! You think: ‘Wow’. I was knocked over by it.”
I totally agree with him. Bring on the Oscar, Heath deserves it!
The Batman and The Joker are Entertainment Weekly’s cover boys…with all the hype of The Dark Knight I think it was a great choice. Inside the pages Christopher Nolan (the director) has nothing but praise for Heath Ledger and the role he played in the movie.
On Heath’s commitment to his character: â€The guy had serious nuts. What I needed was someone who wouldn’t be afraid of the comparison with Jack Nicholson. And then I saw Heath’s incredible performance in Brokeback Mountain. Such a lack of vanity. This was an actor who wasn’t afraid to bury himself in his character — to a massive extent.â€
On having the same vision for the The Joker as Heath: â€We had the same take on the character. We didn’t have a script yet, but we had ideas. The idea of anarchy as an absolute. The idea of chaos as the most frightening thing to society. The idea of a motiveless criminal, somebody who just wants to watch the world burn.â€
On Heath spending months working with a voice coach fine-tuning the Joker’s cackling cadence: “He tried to articulate to me what he was doing with his voice, but it was sometimes hard to understand. He talked about ventriloquist dummies, the way their mouths moved, the way their voices wouldn’t appear to come out of them. He said he wanted the voice to have a mocking quality, a sort of disconnectedness.â€
On Heath splattering makeup across his face throughout the film: â€He started applying the makeup himself — just to see what it would look like if he put it on with his own hands. We talked about how streaking the paint could get across the idea of corruption, of decay.â€
This role of The Joker would have changed Heath no matter what…and seeing him come alive again on the movie screen will be moving. Laughing and crying…amazing and terrifying…good and bad…
