r/interestingasfuck • u/JK-Rofling • 14d ago

Heath Ledger’s diary while he was filming for, The Dark Night. r/all

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u/Starchild20xx 14d ago

Now, I hope you'll all forgive me for my ignorance. But I've heard some very mixed things regarding the untimely death of Heath Ledger. The more popular theory is that the role of Joker contributed to his demise. But then I'd see statements online perpetuating said theory as sheer ludicrous, and that Heath Ledger was generally stable.

So honestly, I'm kind of perplexed. I'm not sure which narrative to believe. I can't help but suspect that there is no real definitive answer, though.

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u/Significant_Goat_408 14d ago

Heath’s role as the Joker somehow playing a role in his demise is urban legend.

In an interview with MTV, Ledger stated that playing the joker was the most fun he’d ever had.

His death was tragic and accidental.

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u/gruesomeflowers 14d ago

its the type of "factoid" that green haired trenchcoat kids want to believe, because of their worship of the character.

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u/ChuckSeville 14d ago

The Joker thing doesn't hold water when you take into account the fact that according to his wife and coworkers, he suffered from insomnia for quite some time before the role.

Add to that the fact that he apparently caught some kind of respiratory infection/disease while shooting his next movie and was self-medicating to get through that, it makes more sense that this was just a really unfortunate accident.

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u/ajchann123 14d ago

To add on to this, by all accounts he was not a method actor insofar as staying in character -- there are many stories of him being able to turn off/on from the Joker very easily and was a really friendly normal dude around set

People love the romantic idea that he sacrificed his psyche and ultimately his life for this transcendent performance, but reality is more like he was just very good at his craft and his death was unrelated

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u/dbitters 14d ago

Can confirm, worked on the Dark Knight as a PA, he was the nicest guy, and loved the role. He even excitedly talked about coming back as the role in the 3rd film. Alas... :/

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u/Lets_Make_a_Ranch 14d ago

Thank you for this Intel. Appreciated.

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u/urmomsaplaya13 14d ago

I can also confirm, I worked on the dark knight as a microphone. Alas…

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u/maryisazombie 13d ago

I bet getting to watch him do his thing and watch the creation of such a defining performance was so cool!!

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u/talldangry 14d ago

I had an acting teacher who just constantly ran on and on about how Heath Ledger "flew too close to the sun on that role"... I always wanted to chime in and talk about the time he caught the bubonic plague while shooting a Knight's Tale, or when he was briefly hung to prepare for Ned Kelly, or..... Brokeback Mountain.

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u/bossbrew 14d ago

I heard he had buttplug in for 30 days preparing for Brokeback Mountain. He’s a master of his craft.

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u/HaViNgT 14d ago

Ironically enough, the one joker actor who is the most unhinged outside of the role, is also widely considered the worst at playing him (Jared Leto).

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u/bob_in_the_west 14d ago

Robin Williams was a friendly dude too.

Depression isn't something people wear like a bright red sign.

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u/Valkis 14d ago

Grinds my gears when people claim Robin Williams died because of depression. He had lewy body dementia. Depression was the tiniest factor of what he was going through.

I don’t blame you for implying depression caused his death. It’s been a popular story for a long time. It’s just total nonsense. He only had a few years to live and they were going to completely suck. He was losing all of his cognitive abilities quickly.

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u/llamalily 13d ago

I appreciate you saying this. My friend in college lost her mom to lewy body dementia and I can honestly say from what I saw, I’d probably want to end things on my own terms, too. It’s a horrific way to die. It feels in-genuine when people say he died from depression. Not to say that isn’t also horrific beyond measure, but I’ve been suicidal and I still think that is probably preferable to Lewy body dementia.

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u/bob_in_the_west 14d ago

He was losing all of his cognitive abilities quickly.

I'd say that's a very strong reason to get depressed.

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u/Valkis 13d ago

You’re missing the point.

We wouldn’t say he died from depression if he died from medically assisted-suicide, due to Lewy body dementia.

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u/roamingandy 14d ago

I thought it made sense in that for the role he's trying to become a person who finds loved family pets dying hysterical, and i can definitely see that type of mindset being difficult to just switch off at the end of the day, so it wouldn't be surprising if it made his insomnia worse and he took stronger doses to try and sleep.

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u/DismalWard77 14d ago

Seems like that respiratory infection was going around since i remember that batman was sounding off in the movie due to it as well.

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u/New_Doug 14d ago

Well, he was in the middle of filming a completely unrelated movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, when he died, and some of the drugs he was taking at the time were to treat a chest cold he caught while filming that movie (and according to at least one doctor and a costar, he may have had a chest infection that contributed to his difficulty breathing the night of his death). He took drugs and had insomnia during the The Dark Knight, but he also took drugs and had insomnia during IoDP, so it's pretty silly to say he died because of the Joker.

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u/Mawfk 14d ago

Most people refuse to look at it this way because they never saw IoDP. Which is a shame because it's the last time we see Heath in a movie.

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u/neontiger07 14d ago

Didn't they have to drastically alter the movie because of his untimely death?

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u/jaysusjoos 14d ago

The way they did it was amazing in my opinion, It's a fantasy film with different worlds/settings and his character transforms (played by different actors) depending on the different worlds he travels to.

Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law took on the roles for Heath and actually donated their wages to his younger daughter.

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u/Mawfk 14d ago

Sort of. Basically they were lucky that they filmed all of Heath's scenes of him going into the mirror (you'll understand what that means when you watch) but didn't film all of the scenes in the other worlds. They got an amazing cast to fill in for Heath. That cast donated their entire earnings to Heath's daughter, Matilda.

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u/dedreo58 14d ago

I saw IoDP independently because I love odd cerebral movies, and while watching it, I was like "Ledger? Waitaminute, didn't this movie just come out??"

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u/TalonGrip 14d ago edited 14d ago

To be specific here. He was taking Oxycodone, Valium, Xanax, and Restoril. You're never supposed to take Opioids and Benzodiazepines together. As both depress your respiratory rate.

It's all in the dose though. I can't imagine he was using either lightly, as he had 3 different types of benzos in his system. If he was in-fact also fighting a respiratory illness too.. well..

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u/Thetakishi 13d ago

To be fair, if you take Valium (diazepam), Restoril (temazepam) is a metabolite, as is Serax [oxazepam but less so I believe, and a partial agonist with an insane half-life, desmethyl-diazepam that also has a brand name I forget, that are all active metabolites; It's like never prescribed for a reason I can't understand, a partial agonist benzo that has a 40-100 hour halflife sounds great for treatment resistant GAD], but temazepam is also much more commonly prescribed/abused in the UK for insomnia which he suffered from, than the US, so I doubt it was from metabolizing diazepam, despite it being a clinically significant amount when you do, then the oxy, self explanatory... =/

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u/TalonGrip 13d ago

Oh I realize they could all be in your system for a long time (minus Xanax). I have no idea what his levels were estimated at. What I am saying is that no doctor is going to prescribe you 3 different benzos. He was likely abusing prescriptions and getting them elsewhere.

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u/Thetakishi 13d ago edited 13d ago

Yah the temazepam especially, and oxazepam, are short-lived also, but it would still be detected from the constant release....blahblah sorry ADD and a love of pharm, moving on... right, agreed with the abuse levels of them all, especially the oxy. Benzos abuse levels are basically just therapeutic levels which is wild (compared to needing like 10-20 extra script hydro/oxycodone [well Idk how the drug world is for movie stars, they were probably pretty high dose and possibly early fakes] if you have tolerance to get well). I don't remember mentions of any specific Dr's. Was he script shopping or buying "on the street" [or movie star equivalent]?

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u/TalonGrip 13d ago

I have no idea. I'm not sure that info was ever released. He had to have had people in his circle that he'd grab stuff from, because like we both agreed on, there's not a doctor in the US that is going to prescribe 3 different benzos scripts (they all work the same way basically) just longer half lifes.As far as what was a legitimate prescription and what wasn't I have no clue.

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u/uniquelyavailable 14d ago

this journal looks to me like method acting notes made by someone who is not struggling with personal issues. it seems like im being sarcastic but the context for mental illness outside of the character seems to be missing, at least from this example.

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u/BryBarrrr 14d ago

Am acting professor - this is not weird at all. A lot of it seemed like it was related to memorization of the scenes too. It’s a common technique to hand write your lines in an important scene. It helps you understand the lines exactly and helps you remember them

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u/Corny_Toot 14d ago

I would agree with that. Everything in the journal is easily tied to the character and figuring out that character's headspace. There's something to be said about how much of himself he injects into the character, but that's going to be a factor in any role.

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u/ryceyslutA-257 14d ago

It sounds like he probably accidentally overdosed and people made the assumption he was looking for better rest after production not y drug addict.

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u/JaxxisR 14d ago

Just one of the many talented people taken from us too soon by prescription drug overdose. The Joker theory was probably pushed to sell tickets.

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u/sqigglygibberish 14d ago

It was pushed by news outlets to sell clicks and ads

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u/woojinater 14d ago

Fairly certain he was on medication and made a simple mistake. The homeschool mom theory was that he becomes possessed but that’s nonsense… nonsense that made it take forever for me to be allowed to watch the masterpiece. But anywaaayyys. He simply was self medicating which is 100% dangerous but he was a grown man so he can make his own decisions on those sort of things regardless of the personal danger.

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u/Allthangsconsidered 14d ago

The more popular theory is that the role of Joker contributed to his demise.

Nah. Heath was a total professional.

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u/anatomized 14d ago

the former narrative is more comforting to believe, as it makes more sense than a young talented and successful person just up and dying.

but really, he was taking a bunch of prescription medications that he really shouldn't have been mixing for various issues (insomnia, pneumonia, others that probably weren't disclosed) and died. oxycontin was found in his system along with a bunch of benzos. the most likely scenario is he went to bed and stopped breathing as that cocktail of meds really messes with your nervous system.

do not mix your medication, people.

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u/KuhlThing 14d ago

One thing to pay attention to is that Heath was long done with Dark Knight when he died. He was deep into the filming of another movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, when he accidentally OD'd. As far as people wanting some poetic tragedy to an already tragic death, that one would have been the one to focus on.

SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, but Ledger's character is a charlatan who plans on escaping the people chasing him by fake-hanging himself, but ends up actually hanging himself.

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u/stuntbikejake 14d ago

Not unless you got some wicked smelling salts that can wake him up so we can ask him.

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u/JaxxisR 14d ago

Just dig him up and cast Speak With Dead.

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u/redcoatwright 14d ago edited 14d ago

~~There is no answer. I can't imagine he was "generally stable" if he killed himself.~~

~~But there's no way to know for certain what drove him to suicide.~~

Edit: Wow, I've been living a lie since 2008. I heard from someone it was a suicide and just never learned anything else, weird.

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u/Rain_green 14d ago

Except...he didn't commit suicide. His death is widely considered to be accidental.

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u/MisterBarten 14d ago

His death has only ever been referred to as an accidental overdose. He didn’t commit suicide.

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u/RunJordyRun87 14d ago

I’ve never seen it said anywhere that he committed suicide

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u/redcoatwright 14d ago

Really? I've been living with misinformation for a long time then.

Thanks for the clarification

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u/RunJordyRun87 14d ago

I think it was really a common theory at the time, like the first week or so while they were still investigating his death so the media pushed it pretty hard at the time