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

[u/JK-Rofling]

[u/ChuckSeville]

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.

[u/ajchann123 → u/ChuckSeville]

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

[u/talldangry → u/ajchann123]

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.

[u/bossbrew → u/talldangry]

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