Poor Heath Ledger! I was shocked at the news of his death. Dead at 28. Found with a bottle of sleeping pills.
Anyway while reading the yahoo! news report (click here) A particular paragraph caught my eye:
Ledger said in an interview in November that “Dark Knight” and last year’s “I’m Not There,” took a heavy toll. He said he “stressed out a little too much” during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.”
I know Heath Ledger is a very good actor. To correctly portray a character, an actor must internalize or think like the character they are portraying. Could Ledger have snapped while playing The Joker character?
The Joker is one of Batman’s earliest foes and one of the most insane and depraved. Forget about the cute and funny clown that you see in the batman cartoons. The Joker is one sick person. To portray him effectively means sinking into madness.
In ”Batman: The killing joke“ The Joker is at his most depraved. He shoots Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) in the back, effectively paralyzing her from the waist down. Joker then strips her father naked (commisioner Gordon) and forces him to watch the helpless Barbara in various states of undress.
It’s sick.
According to this wikipedia article, Mr Ledger had recieved a copy of the book in order to help him portray the Joker better. Could this have been one of the factors leading to his death?? Did he truly see into the heart of madness? We may never know.
Click here to download BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE in pdf format. See it for yourself.
yeah, heath’s death is definitely a waste. masyado pa syang bata.
I think Heath’s death was closely related to the role of The Joker. He took pills to sleep because he had nightmares of the creature he had become. He was so into his roll as The Joker that it consumed him and he went insane, needing pills for sleep trying to get thoughts of his on being out of his unconcious mind. I truely believe this is the Curse of The Joker at its worst. You may argue saying “Then why isnt Jack Nicholson dead” well have you taken a look at him THE MAN IS CRAZY! The Batman films have never seen a better Joker but the sad part is they will never seen him again.
Anthony Hopkins said on Oprah that portraying the character in Proof caused him to ‘break down’, he mentioned another role where his character was suffering from a heart attack and he wanted to get so deep into it but realized it was too much and just unnecessary, so I think this coming from one of the best actors of our era can prove Christian Bale wrong…acting CAN get a response from the body and I think that was the case with Heath. It might have depressed him.
Now I’m not a big heath ledger fan, but what i do know is that he hated the press, and playing in such a big movie, such a big character, there was press everywhere. I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the press and wanted to get away from them and took a lot of sleeping pills to get a way. I don’t think he knew that all the pills would kill him. I think Heath Ledger did die from portraying the character of the Joker and I’m sure Martin, your right that he was having nightmares and took to much sleeping pills to get away from the fear and pain as well.
Well thats my theory
I feel as though Heath Ledger’s death was caused by the playing of this role, to really play the part well he needed to fully understand the jokers mindframe. That’s it, he was pushed too far and found himself in a place he didn’t want to be, thus trying to get away from it by taking sleeping pills. We can all learn from this.
SendSpace no longer has that pdf available. Where else could I get a copy of that?
Poor guy. Honestly, I didn’t know him beefore, I’m not very good at films and actors, but is play in the Dark Knight was brilliant.
Actors should learn how to distinguish between their work and their real lives, more than in any other job.
Sadly, it’s probably the hardest for them…
I do believe there was a connection between the Joker role and Heath Ledger’s death. He already had a predispostion to depression (probably manic depression), was grieving the loss of his relationship with Michelle Williams and was working long hours portraying an evil character. This all sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. He probably didn’t intentionally mean to kill himself but fatal accidents can happen if the environment is right.
@Rodeheaver
At a comic book store. Or maybe Amazon.
I think as far as circumstances are concerned Heath Ledger was in a perfect storm ie: predisposition to depression, history of insomnia, break-up of a significant relationship, unwanted press attention, overwork, and numerous other factors. His life had clearly become unmanagable. But, if you’ll notice he didn’t die during the Batman filming he died two months later which could have represented another loss for him. He said he “loved” playing the Joker and I imagine he had also grown attached to his fellow actors in that film. A lot of excitement, action, bonding, during the film and then NOTHING – it was all over and he was left having to start over again in a new film. He also had pneumonia. It’s no wonder he died, for as incredible as he was Heath Ledger was still only human.
nothin’ 2 say more than we lost that guy…am really sad about wat happened 2 him , nd kindof feelin’ wat he felt in his last dayz after filmin’ that movie .
i think that ledger probably already had some of his own problems, but, the joker is pure evil, there is nothing that he feels any emotion over. most” bad guys” have a breaking point no matter how terrible it may be, the joker doesn’t. trying to act and be like the joker for that long could get anybody a little messed up. also, can you imagine, the posters for the joker are scary enough, but to have to always see yourself like that, and know that’s why your famous, it would be terrible. the sleeping pills could have been for many reasons, but i think that having to act like the joker was a large part in why he is gone.
Nahhh… he played a role that he shouldn’t play, he was killed, search for it, a lot of good actors played a lot of insane roles, but they didn’t killed themselves, search for Brandon lee who got the same ending.
dude was killed!!!!
WHY. SO. SERIOUS…Heath.
I watched an interveiw with one of Heath’s friends and he said that Heath was really funny and nice but as soon as they said action, he was the Joker, and it was very scary how alike he was to that character. i think he probably was unable to make the switch between heath and the joker anymore, and because he was trying to play that character so well for so long, that he became the joker, and was therefore insane. i think this probably led to his death. although it would if you were playing someone that insane for sooo long. poor man. he was really good x
FOR ONE YOU FREAKIN IDIOTS HEATH WAS ON MORE FREAKIN PILLS THEN JUST SLEEPING PILLS HE WAS DEEPLY DEPRESSED TAKIN XANAX AND OTHER PAINKILLERS ALSO AND HE WAS TAKING SLEEPING PILLS TO SLEEP BC HE WASNT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP NOT BC HE WAS HAVING NIGHTMARES YOU FREAKIN MORONS AND HIS ROLE AS THE JOKER HAS NUTHING TO DO WITH HIS DEATH JUST STFU FREAKIN IDIOT PPL WHO HAS NUTHIN BETTER TO DO THEN BLAME A GOOD ASS MOVIE AS HIS DEATH I LOVE HEATH I AM A BIGGER FAN THEN ANY OF YOU DUMBASS PPL SO STFU IT HAS NUTHIN TO DO WITH THE FREAKIN MOVIE EFF YOU ALL
the person who left the comment before me: THANK YOU! seriously, do any of you people read? he died from an accidental overdose of like five different medications. that some of them were not even prescribed to him. weather or not he was a drug user an did them all the time we will never really know. same with if it was an accidental overdose or suicide. but i think it was accidental. he had a daughter an his relationship with michelle williams was not over. people around where he lived in new york said they would see heath and michelle together as well as thier daugheter all the time. as for him going “crazy because he portrayed the joker an that took over him,” you all really are idiots. yes he loved playing that roll. thats what actors do. they play thier roles because they are the best ones for it. being the joker had nothing i repeat nothing to do with his death. he was not depressed nor crazy. dont you think if he really went insane and “became” the joker himself that he would of killed people or somethin
Oh yes his part could have very well had a part in his death along with the medications for the joker is in my head all the day long
why did he have to die WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY NONONONONONONONOONOONOONONONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HA HA HA!!! You ‘re all crazy to the boot! The man died from sleeping-pills-abuse and nothing more. Do your homework, and you will find that many hollywood actors are famous… sorry, infamous, for drug abuse, narcotics use, alcoholism, depravity of all kinds and forms (making porno movies, homosexuality or normal but overindulging sexuality) and so on.
Joker, huh? Yes, a mad clown, and evil clown, who kills people and murders mercilessly and relentlessly, is not a big deal, especially for an adult, especially for being a fantasy character. Real life is more cruel and DISTURBING. Much more cruel and DISTURBING than that (a fantasy character). There are people out there like judges who rape their own children, like politicians who order the army to butcher women and children, money-lenders who lead their clients to suicide, young girls who become web-cam slaves or whores in order to pay their bills and college funds, and an entire HELL of REAL terror, depravity, twisted evil and base villainy, not that of a FANTASY theme.
On the contrary. A person like Joker would be a blessing should he exist. Societies have become so much corrupted, depraved, amoral, unethical and twisted, that only a serial killer who slaugters everyone with a laugh would be a real savior. Maybe that worthless youngster forced himself to die, because he realized just that, and he lacked both the guts and the balls to admit/commit it?
I was once an actor, and there are two ways of acting. The first is
technicol acting. It is were you turn into your character for that day of shooting the film or going on stage to perform live. The other is method. This is when a person “becomes” the characther not only at the studio or on stage, but they live it on their own personal time day in and day out. Some of the best actors. For example, Duston Hoffman. When he accepted his Acadamy Award for Rainman, you may notice he is still speaking and performing that character. No telling how long it took him to become his true self again. Then you have another wonderful actor named Julliette Lewis who plays very dark roles in movies like “Natural Born Killers.” When asked how can you play these roles and then go home and night and cook dinner for your husband and just live a normal light. She said that she leaves the character behind as soon as she leaves the studio. I may also like to mention that this Acadamy Award nominee never took one acting class. We may never know what Heath Ledger was feeling, however if you do your homework, you will find out that he did NOT associate with many of the actors. In fact he asked that during takes, he wanted to be by himself. Even other people on the set that knew Heath Ledger was one of the nicest down to Earth actors, the were taken back by is mannerisms and how mean he was during this movie. From what I gather, I think he was the next Marlon Brando and we truly lost a wonderful talet. I would also like to express my sadness for Whitney Housten’s death. There too, a great talent, but only for a short time.
God be with them all,
A.L.
After the Devil got done speaking through him in the movie he killed him…drinking and those pills wasn’t the cause of his death…The Devil used him one last time and killed…typical Satan use you for his Glory and Kill You…that’s the cause of MJ, Whitney and much more especially rappers.Currently watching it on tv and i can just here Satan speaking through him…what ashame
all you guys can really make it into the FBI Unit…. very creative but you wont know know the truth. the truth is much more deeper than you think it is. it too dark out there…..
idk what he died from or for what reason, but what i do know is he makes it come to life forreal, he had to do SOMETHING to make his self jump out of his own natural habitat & into tha joker’s. that shit was awesome. but sadly… R.I.P.
I dont know this guy much but from what i saw he got an overdose of pills and he had a break up and is acting like saskue mixed with agent 47 from hitman this means he was deppresd and acting like a evil mad guy who forgot to go to a mental institution so what im saying is he died from depresion and an overdose of drugs and u guys should be 18 tu 30 but im 12 and this is my theroy
who knows the killing joke batman dies of laffter i got the book
and he shot babara in the……….peeing hole