The Dark Knight Trilogy (Christopher Nolan, 2005-2012)

[Mr Sausage]

Dick Tracy discussion has been moved here.

[Marcel Gioberti]

I'm more interested in seeing a feature length version of this material than Nolan's hoe-hum Batman as rubber-suited ninja routines.

I've now seen the Dark Knight trailer three times and I'm already retching at Ledger's performance.

Between Bale's growling through latex and Ledger's strained conniptions, the vocal chords of the leads alone might ruin the next installment.

[Cold Bishop]

I'm more interested in seeing a feature length version of this material than Nolan's hoe-hum Batman as rubber-suited ninja routines.

I've now seen the Dark Knight trailer three times and I'm already retching at Ledger's performance.

Between Bale's growling through latex and Ledger's strained conniptions, the vocal chords of the leads alone might ruin the next installment.

You lost me at Shark Repellent..

Sure, vocal contrition are always problematic... but in a universe whose logic dictates that someone can become completely unrecognizable by putting on glasses, I'm not to worried about vocal changes whenever they take up a persona.

And seriously, how else is the Joker suppose to sound like... the australian douche from 10 Things I Hate About You.

[Jeff]

HD Trailer

[Barmy]

Drugged out Heath talks about his Batman flick.

[sevenarts]

Heath Ledger is dead

Wow, this movie is going to be extra-creepy when it comes out now. This is very sad.

[Len]

Such a shame to go so young, didn't even know that he had problems like that (I guess he's kept everything pretty well out of the tabloids and such).

I've been meaning to go see I'm Not There later this week, I guess it'll feel more than a bit weird now.

[flyonthewall2983]

From imdb.com

Jack Nicholson has hinted he warned tragic Heath Ledger against taking on the role of The Joker in the new Batman film. Ledger, 28 - who was declared dead at 3:30pm at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday - publicly declared himself exhausted and sleep deprived in November following the grueling shoot for The Dark Knight. He also revealed in an interview with the New York Times he'd resorted to taking sleeping pills - an overdose of which is believed to be the cause of his death - in a desperate bid to catch up on rest. And Nicholson, who famously portrayed the menacing Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 movie Batman, implied to the waiting crowd outside plush London restaurant The Wolesley on Tuesday night he spoke to Ledger about his role in The Dark Knight - and warned him about the pitfalls of taking on such a demanding challenge. When asked by the London crowds for his reaction to Ledger's untimely demise, a defeated Nicholson simply replied, "I told him so." Batman Begins prequel The Dark Knight is due to be released in July.

[domino harvey]

It's a cartoon character from a comic book, give me a fucking break

[tavernier]

And Ledger's the first Joker to die immediately after shooting.

[Antoine Doinel]

It's a cartoon character

Oddly enough, so is Nicholson's character in the Bucket List.

[exte]

It's a cartoon character from a comic book, give me a fucking break

That's a pretty hasty assessment, isn't it? Isn't all acting just *pretend* anyway then? I can believe it thoroughly exhausted the actor to live in that frame of mind all day long. I can understand by doing it the method way, you're asking for a lot more trouble... Perhaps it was Nicholson who thought just what you wrote, and still delivered a memorable performance... But still, what a shit thing to say. I know we're months from the film's release so I can't really judge, but I'm guessing it will blow us all away - he was that kind of actor. It will be tremendous to see his final bow on Imax, for sure...

[Antoine Doinel]

It's a cartoon character from a comic book, give me a fucking break

That's a pretty hasty assessment, isn't it?

So is insinuating that acting in a movie role led to an actor to his death. I don't think you can get any more cavalier or reductive than that. I think Nicholson was an asshole for saying what he did.

[chaddoli]

Yeah, it seems pretty ridiculous. I have trouble believing he actually said, or actually meant that. IMDb is about as bad as Page 6. Did you notice how that entire paragraph was telling us what Nicholson implied, closing limply with the actual, one-line quote.

[Andre Jurieu]

From imdb.com

Jack Nicholson has hinted he warned tragic Heath Ledger against taking on the role of The Joker in the new Batman film. Ledger, 28 - who was declared dead at 3:30pm at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday - publicly declared himself exhausted and sleep deprived in November following the grueling shoot for The Dark Knight. He also revealed in an interview with the New York Times he'd resorted to taking sleeping pills - an overdose of which is believed to be the cause of his death - in a desperate bid to catch up on rest. And Nicholson, who famously portrayed the menacing Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 movie Batman, implied to the waiting crowd outside plush London restaurant The Wolesley on Tuesday night he spoke to Ledger about his role in The Dark Knight - and warned him about the pitfalls of taking on such a demanding challenge. When asked by the London crowds for his reaction to Ledger's untimely demise, a defeated Nicholson simply replied, "I told him so." Batman Begins prequel The Dark Knight is due to be released in July.

... But still, what a shit thing to say...

I think Nicholson was an asshole for saying what he did.

Yeah, it seems pretty ridiculous. I have trouble believing he actually said, or actually meant that. IMDb is about as bad as Page 6. Did you notice how that entire paragraph was telling us what Nicholson implied, closing limply with the actual, one-line quote.

Here's the video footage itself. As you can see this is mostly just a prime example of how bad reporting has gotten lately. Jack makes the statement, but I have no idea how anyone can say that Jack is making some claim about the toll that the role of the Joker takes on any actor. It just sounds like Jack warned Ledger about something. For all we know their conversation could have been about avoiding drugs or staying away from untalented actresses.

The footage itself is just surreal. Jack seems to be soaking up all the attention, doesn't really care that much about the news of Ledger's death, and concentrates most of his mental capacity on finishing his smoke. Just another prime example of how no one is normal in front of a camera. Boy, right about now, I'm so envious of that Hollywood lifestyle. Stay classy, Jack!

[Andrew_VB]

So is insinuating that acting in a movie role led to an actor to his death. I don't think you can get any more cavalier or reductive than that. I think Nicholson was an asshole for saying what he did.

well, ledger said being the joker was taking a toll on his well being and he hasn't been able to sleep well at all as a result of playing the joker. so it's not that far off.

[Poncho Punch]

And he also said it was the most fun he'd had in a role, so which Heath Ledger are we going to believe?

[MichaelB]

That's a pretty hasty assessment, isn't it? Isn't all acting just *pretend* anyway then?

Indeed.

[Marcel Gioberti]

I think there are a lot of ignorant and vocal blowhards on this forum. Acting is nowhere near the simple process of fun and make believe it's often made out to be. I wasn't shocked in the least when I heard all the talk of the toll it took on Ledger to reprise the Joker role for Nolan.

A friend of mine who worked on The Dark Knight reported to me last summer that Ledger was going to extremes and the crew was a bit concerned. I laughed it off until I started seeing similar stories in the media and of course, once I had seen the trailer.

People trivialize what it means to go into the psychological space of a character. It can absolutely fuck you up. In fact, when I heard about his death, I wasn't aware he had gone on record discussing his sleeping problems, but I immediately wondered if he hadn't shaken the experience of playing the Joker.

[Antoine Doinel]

Yes, acting is a process and can be grueling. I think the issue that some of us are taking are that people are just drawing a straight line from the character of the Joker to Ledger's health issues and ulimately his death. I just don't think it's that simple. If Ledger couldn't "shake the character" of the Joker then it points to something else mentally wrong with him that needed to be addressed. There are many method actors who undertake the same grueling work (Daniel Day Lewis for example) and are able to step out of their character when the film is finished. That Ledger supposedly couldn't only exacerbated other issues that were clearly happening in his life. By some accounts he was still devastated by the dissolution of his relationship with Michele Williams and depending on who you talk to, he had a drug problem for some time.

[MichaelB]

There are many method actors who undertake the same grueling work (Daniel Day Lewis for example) and are able to step out of their character when the film is finished.

I was about to say "that's a really terrible example"...

...but it seems that the famous story of Day Lewis having a near-nervous breakdown after playing Hamlet and becoming convinced that the ghost was that of his real father was largely a myth.

[colinr0380]

The quote from that article on The Unbearable Lightness of Being is interesting. I didn't think the flaws he sees in his performance were too detrimental to the film but then I still haven't read the book yet!

[Matt]

...but it seems that the famous story of Day Lewis having a near-nervous breakdown after playing Hamlet and becoming convinced that the ghost was that of his real father was largely a myth.

He talks about this in more detail in his Charlie Rose interview. I don't remember exactly what he says about it here, but it was less than a nervous breakdown, yet more than just being tired.

[flyonthewall2983]

Didn't Gabriel Byrne suffer from something similar when he played Hamlet? I remember reading that his father actually died during his run and he had to leave because playing the role became too emotionally demanding.

[MichaelB]

And there's always James Fox and Performance - the rather large gap in his filmography is not a coincidence!