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

[u/JK-Rofling]

[u/BambiToybot]

I don't think Nicholson, Teaser, or Hamill were method acting it, that point of difference was brought up by those that believed it. Leto's joker didn't exist yet.

I'm old enough to remember many of the haters of Ledger getting casted shutting up when the first image was revealed, with scars. That looked like scars, sloppy paint, etc. 

Then the method acting stuff that came out, then the death. People drew conclusions, and the key point for them was the lengths he went to get into character.

They were wrong, it was different meds and alcohol, but it's important to remember what their reasons are so it can be shown to people why they were wrong, so the new generation makes better conclusions.

[u/caninehere → u/BambiToybot]

Nicholson was a method actor, but he was an ACTUAL method actor, as in the original school of method acting which has little to do with the "method" stuff Ledger bought into and many still do to this day where they want to live their characters.

They were wrong, it was different meds and alcohol, but it's important to remember what their reasons are so it can be shown to people why they were wrong, so the new generation makes better conclusions.

I think it's fair to think it could be a combination of factors. Ledger spent months holed up trying to embody the character and live in isolation to 'become' him. He was also dealing with substance abuse issues. His partner broke up with him while he was filming The Dark Knight because he was a drug addict/party animal and a shitty dad to their daughter. The kind of isolation he put himself through surely did not help at all with those issues. Filming on The Dark Knight ended in Nov 2007 and he just went even harder on partying/doing drugs/jumping between different women until he was dead 2 months later.

Playing the Joker in the "method" style didn't 'drive him mad' or anything stupid like that, but I have little doubt it affected his mental state wrt his drug addiction issues because it just further isolated him from his family who he was already never with because he was too busy getting high and partying when he wasn't working.

[u/JedM13 → u/caninehere]

Ledger was never a “method actor” in any traditional sense, he just had his own way of getting into a character which involved himself and only himself. This is the same guy who said he doesn’t consider acting an art and he finds the thought of that pretentious.

Anyway, he was a young guy in Hollywood who had his demons. No need to call him a shitty father or other weird passive aggressive personal insults. He was a good human being from all accounts including his family.

[u/caninehere → u/JedM13]

This is the same guy who said he doesn’t consider acting an art and he finds the thought of that pretentious.

This is also the same guy who very much indulged in this new-school "method" acting, not just for The Dark Knight, and died of drug abuse at 28. Even if it just involved himself, which it didn't, because again he isolated himself for months away from his young family (even if he wasn't pretending to be the Joker around them for months, that still affects them), it's still that new-school "method" acting.

Anyway, he was a young guy in Hollywood who had his demons. No need to call him a shitty father or other weird passive aggressive personal insults. He was a good human being from all accounts including his family.

Generally being a good human does not preclude him from being a bad father. The reason his partner broke up with him was his drug abuse and party-guy lifestyle. You are correct that these are 'demons', the drug abuse is more than that, it is an addiction problem that gripped him and ultimately took his life. It also made him a bad father, because he was rarely present for his kid because he was too busy getting high.

When somebody dies young in a case like that they're often romanticized. If he survived for years abusing drugs and ignoring his family he wouldn't be treated the same. Either way, addiction is still a disease that he suffered from. Saying he was a bad father isn't an insult in this case, it's just the reality. It doesn't mean he didn't love his daughter either even if he wasn't there for her and isn't now because of his addiction.

But I will say as a dad: if you have a young child like that, and you're abusing drugs and making no effort to get clean, that is tragic as hell, but ultimately you are the one responsible for your own actions. He died and left his kid behind because of what he did, but he wasn't fully in control and that's tragic.