AIDS tops Heath Ledger’s Joker journal
TORONTO – SEPTEMBER 08: Actor Heath Ledger from the film “Candy” poses for portraits in the Chanel Celebrity Suite at the Four Season hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
By all accounts, Heath Ledger spent months getting into the head of The Joker as he prepared to film The Dark Knight, a role critics seem to think might bag the late actor a posthumous Oscar nomination.
According to reports, the actor locked himself in his New York apartment to practice The Jokers voice and nail down his mannerisms—in fact, his style of method acting, some say, might have led to the sleeping problems the actor claimed to be having before he overdosed on prescription drugs this January.
Among the prep work Ledger focused on to get into character—a journal, which, according to gossip site PopBitch.com, included a list of things Ledger thought the Joker might find funny.
First thing on the list? AIDS.
According to his co-stars, the actor, who rose to fame in the gay community for his Oscar nominated work in Brokeback Mountain, talked about wanted to find the sick and twisted corners of the Joker’s mind… a character, he said, who had almost no soul.
The Dark Knight is in cinemas now.
Ledger has one more film awaiting release. Several parts of the Terry Gilliam-directed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus were reworked to incorporate the scenes Ledger had completed before passing away.
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