Heath Ledger created one of the most iconic villains Hollywood will ever see. He didn’t stumble into the voice for a sociopath with a terrifyingly happy laugh, it took months of work, which he chronicled in a diary. That diary has been found. It is seen an a German documentary series Too Young To Die about the early death of Heath Ledger. The voiceover, assuming you don’t speak German [EDIT: or French, which would be more relevant], obscures the commentary, but thankfully the uploader translated it.
“This is the Joker’s diary.
In order to inhabit his character, he (Heath) locked himself up in a hotel room for weeks.
He would do that. He liked to dive into his characters, but this time he really took it up a notch.”
“The hospital scene is interesting because when he was a kid, his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse. He was really funny like that. He also was in the movie.
This is a make-up test which was done eight months before. Before the end of the shooting he wrote “bye bye” on the back of the page. It was hard to see this.’
It’s not often that a villain steals the limelight from the protagonist, and it’s a testiment to the incredible amount of time and effort Heath Ledger put into crafting the character. We’ll likely never see another Joker on the big screen again. You can’t top perfection.
video via Reddit