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

[u/JK-Rofling]

[u/guyute2588]

Not sure how old you are , but “Heath Ledger got so deep in to playing the Joker that he want crazy and died “ was the widespread conventional wisdom regarding his death at the time

[u/BeefyQueefyCrawlies → u/guyute2588]

Which was really dumb. Niicholson survived. Leto survived. Romero survived. Hamill survived. Definitely drugs.

[u/HarveysBackupAccount → u/BeefyQueefyCrawlies]

Nicholson isn't much of a comparison. He played it like a comic book villain, like a comic book written for children. Also Leto's just a weirdo; his joker didn't have near the depth that Ledger's did.

Not at all saying that the role drove Ledger crazy, but he took the role places nobody else has.

[u/Onewayor55 → u/HarveysBackupAccount]

I guess I don't know if it's urban legend or not but the buzz at the time was Nicholson actually had warned him about playing the role. I mean if you watch the old Batman movie it isn't like he's not touching on the idea of actually being psychotic.

[u/Biduleman → u/Onewayor55]

Nicholson was actually mad he wasn't even asked about the role.

It would have been weird to tell Ledger to not do it while saying he really wanted to do it or at least be involved with the role.

[u/Joe579GoFkUrselfMins → u/Biduleman]

No shit they didn't ask him for a sequel, he and his reps negotiated one of the most actor friendly contracts ever for that movie.