The tales of Heath Ledger’s dedication to the role of The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight have been shocking the world even though the film was released twelve years ago. The actor famously gave the role his all, locking himself in a room for days, journaling as the Clown of Gotham City, and even begging Christian Bale to beat him up for real.
It is safe to say that the actor gave and earned many scars after playing the role of this iconic character. Even though the methods he used to play the character were extreme, it would seem that there was nothing he would not have done for his perfect performance.
Michael Jai White, who also starred in the film, gave an interview where he revealed something else that Ledger had done to nail not only his performance in a scene but also the acting of everyone else in the room.
Michael Jai White Only Has Fond Memories Of Heath Ledger
Michael Jai White played the role of Gambol in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Gambol is a Gotham gangster who is butting heads with the Joker when he tries to assert his dominance in the crime world of the city. Eventually, his character was killed by the Clown after he put a price on his head.
White gave an interview with ColliderLive where he talked about his experience working alongside Heath Ledger in the film. He started by revealing that he had nothing but positive things to say about the actor, revealing that he had been nothing but nice to him.
“He was so incredibly chill”, said White.
He then talked about what it was like to film the scene where The Joker meets all of the crime bosses of the city. It would seem that something that Ledger did really shocked White.
Michael Jai White Was Shocked When He Learnt The Truth From Christopher Nolan
Michael Jai White revealed that the filming of the scene in the makeshift boardroom took approximately one day to shoot. In the first half of that day, he addressed everyone in the room, with the camera right next to him. This was followed up with a lunch break. During this time, White ended up approaching the director of this film, Christopher Nolan and asked him what was going to be filmed next.
“the first day he comes in we shoot half of the day, he’s in full make-up with cameras beside him, he’s talking to the boardroom,” White went on, “We break for lunch, I ask the director ‘what are we shooting after lunch’ and he says ‘we’re gonna finish up this side of the room’.
The filmmaker told him that now, the shooting would be done with Heath Ledger at the center of it. This seemed to shock White quite a lot, as the actor had been in his clown make-up for hours and his face hadn’t even shown up on camera. The Gambol actor had a realization that the actor had put on so much make-up simply for the sake of everyone else in the room so that their reactions could be as authentic as possible.
“I said ‘do you mean to tell me Heath has been in hours of makeup and he’s not gonna be on camera any time today’ and he said ‘yeah’.” he added, “I was like wow, he just did that for us. That’s for real and coming from the guy who played Spawn, hell no. No way would I do that. I would be in t-shirts and jeans if I don’t have to be marinating in my own juices.”
It would seem that this understanding he had about Ledger’s intentions only made him respect the actor more. White even added that he would never be able to show this much dedication to a role. It is safe to say that Ledger’s dedication to the role of The Joker still helped him have the title of one of the best actors ever, years after his passing.
