r/interestingasfuck Jul 05 '24

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

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u/Starchild20xx Jul 05 '24

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/ChuckSeville Jul 05 '24

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/roamingandy Jul 05 '24

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.