Why does the Joker keep licking his lips in ‘The Dark Knight’?
The Joker, Batman’s nemesis and Gotham’s unwelcomed menace, has taken on many forms since his DC Comics birth in 1951. The only constants have been the brightly coloured garb and a demonic cackle. In Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman, Jack Nicholson showed the Joker’s comical yet unnervingly emotionless side. Heath Ledger demonstrated the character’s vengefully manic side shine through in The Dark Knight and Joaquin Phoenix’s stellar performance in 2019’s The Joker gave the audience a look through the troubled clown’s lenses as we somehow begin to empathise with him.
The Joker character has proven itself to be quite the conduit for actors to display their finest talents. For Ledger, as he geared up for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s seminal 2008 blockbuster, this meant taking extreme measures to ensure perfection. As a method actor, the Australian enveloped himself in the tangle of neuroses the ultimate villain struggles to hide beneath a thick layer of makeup and dyed green hair.
Tragically, Ledger died from an accidental drug overdose on January 22nd, 2008. He had finished filming for The Dark Knight just a few months before. It was reported that the actor had been suffering from depression and insomnia during and after the highly demanding role.
In an interview published in The New York Times on November 4th, 2007, Heath Ledger said: “Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”
While preparing for the role, Ledger had locked himself away in a hotel room for extended periods to review notes and absorb his character. “It’s a combination of reading all the comic books I could that were relevant to the script and then just closing my eyes and meditating on it,” he told Empire in 2007. “I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown.”
Speaking at the film’s premiere, his sister Kate Ledger appeared to refute the link. “I was really shocked because that was him having fun,” she asserted. “Every report was coming out that he was depressed and that [the role] was taking this toll on him, and we’re going; honestly, it was the absolute opposite. It couldn’t be more wrong. He had an amazing sense of humour, and I guess maybe only his family and friends knew that, but he was having fun. He wasn’t depressed about the Joker.”
While it is uncertain how large a role Ledger’s commitment to the character played in his demise, his highly anticipated performance certainly didn’t disappoint. Ledger’s Joker was the most frightening comic book villain ever to grace our screens thanks to his steely humour, kooky mannerisms and smudged clown makeup – oh, and the mass murder!
As we remember Ledger’s Joker in the mind’s eye, we see the lank, dark green hair, dark shadowy eyes and the iconic coathanger smile. “Do you wanna know how I got these scars?” The Joker asks in the film. “My father was a drinker…and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not…one…bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me, and he says, ‘Why so serious?’ He comes at me with the knife – ‘Why so serious?’ He sticks the blade in my mouth – ‘Let’s put a smile on that face!’ And… why so serious?”
Fans will recall Ledger’s Joker frenetically licking his lips like a demented lizard, which serves as a constant reminder of the horrific story behind the scars. The unnerving lizard reflex undoubtedly adds something valuable to the character, but it wasn’t a scripted action.
According to the 2017 documentary I Am Heath Ledger, the actor’s prosthetic scars, which were caked in red paint, kept coming loose on set. Ledger’s habitual licking began as a reflex to check the scars were still in place and to ensure they stayed in position. Gradually, the licking became an integral mannerism that Ledger worked into the performance perfectly.
Watch an iconic scene from The Dark Knight, full of Ledger’s licking, below.
