The Dark Knight: Christian Bale Describes His First Scene With Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is something that has cemented Ledger's name in history, and his version of the character is one of the elements that make The Dark Knight as great as it is. An unearthed interview with Christian Bale has him talking about his first scene with Ledger's Joker and just how committed Ledger was to the character when they shot the sequence.

Talking to THR, Bale explains:

"Our first scene was in an interrogation room together, and I saw that he's a helluva actor who's completely committed to it and totally gets the tone that Chris [Nolan] is trying to create with this. We're not going for actors revealing their enjoyment of playing a wacky caricature. We're treating this as serious drama. You go into character and you stay in the character. I love that. I find that so ridiculous that I love it, and I take that very seriously. Heath was definitely embracing that. When he was in the makeup and the garb he was in character the whole time; and when he took it off he was absolutely fantastic company to be around."

Bale also goes on to talk about how Ledger had pushed him to punch him for real during the interrogation scene.

"As you see in the movie, Batman starts beating the Joker and realizes that this is not your ordinary foe. Because the more I beat him the more he enjoys it. The more I'm giving him satisfaction. Heath was behaving in a very similar fashion. He was kinda egging me on. I was saying, ‘You know what, I really don't need to actually hit you. It's going to look just as good if I don't.' And he's going, ‘Go on. Go on. Go on….' He was slamming himself around, and there were tiled walls inside of that set which were cracked and dented from him hurling himself into them. His commitment was total."

It's interesting that Bale should say that Ledger was just pleasant to be around with on set because on the other hand, Jared Leto, the DCEU's new Joker, had reportedly alienated himself in the cast by going method with his performance. He was said to only answer to "Mister J" and would send weird gifts to his cast-mates like used condoms and dead rodents.

Almost 10 years later, everyone still loves The Dark Knight, and it's become the standard of what makes a good superhero film. Maybe someday down the line, the DCEU will make a movie just as good (and no, Wonder Woman does not count).

See Also: Dave Gibbons Thinks That Watchmen's Also To Blame For Batman V Superman's Failings