Why Heath Ledger refused to copy Jack Nicholson’s Joker
There are a handful of acting performances that are so utterly memorable that they stick long in the hearts and memories of those who witness them, and it’s a surefire fact that when Heath Ledger delivered his Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight movies, he gave an effort that would linger eternally in cinema history.
His Joker was simply one that rebirthed the character, gave him a vicious history and a cruel and chaotic attitude with some of the most intense acting energy ever seen in a superhero movie. Ledger’s performance also remains a reminder of his tragic and untimely death.
Ledger had to contend with the fact that he had so many versions of the Joker to consult and sculpt his own iteration of. However, the late actor, even though he was greatly admired, decided to resist the temptation to mimic Jack Nicholson’s effort in Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman.
“If he was drowning in a pool, it would be [scary],” Ledger told IGN in 2006. “I’m obviously not going for the same thing he went for. That would just be stupid, and they’re also two very different styles of directors and filmmaking. Tim Burton did a more fantastical kind of thing, and Chris Nolan is doing the nitty-gritty kind of handheld realism thing.”
“I love what he did, and it is part of why I want to do it. I remember seeing Batman and thinking how much fun it would be to put on that mask and to attempt to do something along those lines,” he added. “But it would obviously just be murder if I tried to imitate and pointless to the project.”
Around the time Ledger made these comments, he had been preparing to take on the role of the Joker and went on to explain how he was planning to take on the legendary villain. Ledger wanted to give his Joker the utmost sinister feel and to practically transcend the character, making him burst out of the screen.
“It’s so early that I’m trying to leave it open at this point, and I don’t want to be glued down to any one idea,” he added. “I’ve been kind of trying to delay my commitment to the preparation process. I definitely have an image in my head, and I definitely have something up my sleeve.”
And have something up his sleeve, Ledger did, because what followed was certainly a performance entirely his own, a far cry from the kind of effort Jack Nicholson gave so many years prior. In fact, Ledger’s Joker remains the single greatest version of the Batman antagonist the world has ever seen.
