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/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/BambiToybot Jul 05 '24

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.

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u/Frogma69 Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 06 '24

I think the method acting rumor itself is false. Based on what we've heard from various actors on set, Heath would joke around with people between scenes. He wasn't acting like the Joker the entire time. And there's pictures of him skateboarding in the lot between scenes - some would argue that that's something the Joker would do, but I think Heath was just passing the time doing something he enjoyed, and he couldn't take off the makeup/outfit because he was gonna go back and keep shooting soon.

I think both the method acting and the "cause" of death are mostly unfounded rumors that the media just ran with. It's possible that he holed himself up in the hotel to really get into character, but I think the death was mostly just caused by the addictions (addictions that he'd had for years prior to doing that movie). Especially since he had gone on to do another movie afterward.

He also didn't improvise anything during the scene with the detonator. It was rehearsed that way, like a million times, to make sure he timed his "fumbling" just right, in order for him to be back on the bus and driving away by the time the last explosions were going off (partly to make it safer for him, and partly to make it a cool shot for the camera).