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We could appreciate endlessly how well Heath Ledger played the role of a fictional supervillain appearing in the DC comics, Joker in The Dark Knight. It was not just a movie; his greatest role came at the greatest personal cost.
Secrets Behind Heath Ledger’s Smile
1. The Brothers Grimm
His performance as Joker was influenced by the 2005 film The Brothers Grimm. It marked a turning point for the actor as director Terry Gilliam gave Ledger opportunities to create characters they had not been given before. Gilliam helped Ledger put on a clown act for that film.
Christopher Nolan came to him asking for the role of Bruce Wayne (The Batman), but he explained his problems portraying superheroes. And so, he became the Joker.

Ledger was cast early, and he had months and months to prepare for the role. The irony is that earlier he did not attach himself seriously to the roles he was playing. He locked himself in the motel for about six weeks preparing for the role.
2. A Character Diary
And then he tried to dive into his characters, but he took it up a notch this time. He formed a character diary, experimented with his voice, and read all the relevant comics. He had this Joker journal, a red and blue bound book, which contained scrawling and cuttings, several stills from Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange, joker cards, photos of hyenas, unhinged clown makeup, and the word “chaos” highlighted in green. He carried his diary with him in the set.

He loved the costume and character; even while off-set, he would still be wearing it, goofing around, and do skateboarding. He kept things loose and relaxed. He would give bear hugs to the cast and crew members.
The distinctive tongue rolling and mannerisms grew out of Heath Ledger’s habit while playing the role of the Joker.
3. Makeup
His makeup wasn’t supposed to be perfect, but imperfect. The make-up done at first was different from what it is. He had to wash his face a couple of times to get that smudgy look. His idea was to have white makeup on his hands to show that Joker himself did his makeup.
![Joker blow up the hospital | The Dark Knight [UltraHD, HDR, IMAX]](https://icytales.com/wp-content/cache/flying-press/c0EyFBPPuuY-hqdefault.jpg)
4. The Hospital Scene
This very famous Hospital scene where Joker disguises as a nurse. The hospital scene is interesting because his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse when he was a kid. It was funny then, and so in the movie too. Also, if you look closely, the nurse’s name is Matilda, whom he had with actress Michelle Williams, which is the name of his daughter.
This reminds me of one of his famous dialogues “Do I look like a guy with a plan? Do you know what I am? I’m a dog chasing a car. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I do things.”
While Heath’s death was ruled accidental, the diary does reveal he was struggling with the profoundly twisted role and his own emotions.
One of his famous dialogues, “Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can’t savor all the little emotions. In you see, in their last moments, people show you who they are.”

This is a make-up test that was done eight months before. Before the end of the shooting, he wrote ‘‘bye-bye” on the back of the page. It was written in his diary, something his father said ‘was hard to see.’
“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you…stranger.”
5. The Dark Knight
Soon after the last shooting ended, he was found dead due to an overdose of drugs. The Dark Knight was released nearly six months after his death. Before his death, he spoke to Empire Magazine, saying he ‘feared’ the role but wanted to make it different.
‘I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath – someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, and Chris has given me free rein. This is fun because there are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke.’
“Why so serious? “
Last Updated on by Himani Rawat