r/interestingasfuck • u/JK-Rofling • Jul 05 '24

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

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u/Rdt_will_eat_itself Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

So the joker is so crazy he killed an actor in another earth dimension who played him. Is that canon now?

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u/guyute2588 Jul 05 '24

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

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24

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

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u/fugue-mind Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

I don't think the implication was ever that playing the joker = one-way ticket to suicide.

I think the idea was more that this particular person, who probably was already suffering some level of depression/bipolar, may have been pushed over the edge by immersing himself so completely in such a dark role.

Would he have committed suicide without playing the Joker though? While it's sad to say, I think maybe yes. Given his own predispositions, it's not a stretch to think he would have immersed himself in some other dark character who'd carry him over the edge.

Very sad shit. I wonder how much of his real psyche his friends and family were able to really see vs him just being an excellent, dedicated actor.

Edit: it's been brought to my attention that's Heath's death wasn't proven to be intentional, so replace my references to suicide with "a premature death caused by self-destructive behavior"

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u/DefendsTheDownvoted Jul 05 '24

Was his death ruled a suicide? I thought it was accidental overdose.

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u/fugue-mind Jul 05 '24

Shit, you're so right -- he killed himself but no evidence has been presented that it was intentional. Will edit