Hollywood lost a real gem when Heath Ledger passed away in 2008. In the few years he had on this planet, the legendary actor was able to bring out the best in the film industry with his performances in films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Brokeback Mountain. He was a part of a total of 18 movies, two of which were released after his untimely demise.
Heath Ledger’s most memorable performance has to be that of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Unfortunately, the actor could not see the outcome of his hard work as he passed away shortly before the film’s release.
Recalling his time working with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight, Eric Roberts opened up about how the legendary actor was completely different than what he initially expected.
Eric Roberts Opens up about Working with Heath Ledger
Eric Roberts has been a part of hundreds of productions to this date and he had done a ton of work in the film industry before he signed up for The Dark Knight to play Sal Maroni. Clearly, Roberts had more experience in the line of work than Heath Ledger.
Still, he recalled, that he was warned to stay away from Ledger when the actor got into character for The Dark Knight. But when Roberts saw the late actor in front of his eyes, he realized that the warnings were quite baseless as Ledger was a “lovely person” to work with.
During his appearance on the Still Here Hollywood podcast last month, Roberts stated,
“What a lovely person he was. I had been told, ‘Stay away from Heath … he’s into the character, oh my god, he’s gone’ …It wasn’t like that at all. He was perfectly fine.”
He then remembered the time when they were all at rehearsals and Ledger had to do a three-page-long monologue. Of course, the actor got into character and nailed the part. Roberts added that after Ledger was done with his monologue, he turned to his colleagues for humble validation. He said, “He turns to us and he goes ‘How am I doing?’”
No matter what Roberts was told beforehand about the Casanova actor, it didn’t take him long to realize that Ledger was actually pretty “sweet” and “normal.”
“He was just so charming, so likeable, so sweet, so normal. All the stuff I heard about him was not true and he was a lovely person. He was a real loss.”
Clearly, it was a pleasure to work with Ledger and not only Roberts, but The Dark Knight lead Christian Bale, too, thinks so.
Christian Bale Says It Was a Pleasure to Work with Heath Ledger
Bale joined GQ as he broke down some of the most iconic roles in his filmography and when it came to talking about the 2008 film, the actor couldn’t stop himself from gushing over Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker.
He said,
“Heath Ledger, oh my God, what a performance. What a pleasure to have gotten to work with him, and just to see him and how much he put himself into the Joker.”
Bale then added how he believed that his Batman felt a little dull in comparison to Ledger’s Joker. He recalled sitting down with Christopher Nolan and discussing his co-star’s performance.
“When Chris [Nolan] and I first sat down, we said, the problem with Batman is that the villains are always more interesting, right? And so Batman, actually, he’s very close to being a villain himself. So, let’s never let him become dull by comparison, and unfortunately I was sitting there going, ‘I feel a little bit dull by comparison because Heath is just killing this.’”
He then stated just how proud he was of the film and how it was “a pleasure to have gotten to work with Heath.” We are not sobbing, you are!
Stream The Dark Knight on Max.
