No clowning around, this Joker fueled obsession
10 years after “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger’s influence on the role of the archvillain is still hot.
Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight” famously insisted he didn’t have a reason or plan for the mayhem he wrought on Gotham City.
“You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just ... do things,” his gruesomely made-up Joker insisted.
Plan or no plan, the role of the Joker caught fire with the actor’s Oscar-winning performance as the agent of chaos, encouraging other serious thespians to take on Batman’s archest villain – all while finding audiences eager to go for the wild ride.
As director Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” turns 10 this week, the anniversary arrives at a time of peak Joker.
Jared Leto played the bad guy as a supporting character in 2016’s “Suicide Squad” and will have his own Joker spinoff movie with Warner Bros. (as well as a film with lover Harley Quinn). On one end of the character spectrum, Zach Galifianakis voiced the Joker for laughs in 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie,” while on the other, Warner Bros. just greenlit another Joker origin film starring Joaquin Phoenix.
“Heath Ledger’s role has had a huge impact on the Joker,” says Erik Davis, managing editor of the movie site Fandango.com. “‘The Dark Knight’ redefined a film genre and Ledger’s Joker redefined a character, pushing it to an interest level we’re still seeing.”
The villain, created in 1940, had been a standout of the DC Comics universe long before Ledger, who died in 2008 from an overdose of prescription medications, posthumously earned the best-supporting actor Oscar.
The Joker was famously – and campily – portrayed on TV’s “Batman” by Cesar Romero (1966 to 1968). Jack Nicholson brought a darker, still campy Joker performance to Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman,” but audiences never forgot that a global superstar was playing the part.
When Ledger’s casting was announced nearly two decades later, Nolan was initially criticized for choosing an actor known for his chiseled cheekbones over contenders such as Robin Williams and Paul Bettany.
“There was backlash and controversy, like, ‘How can he be the Joker?’ ” says “Access Hollywood” film critic Scott Mantz. “But Ledger’s Joker and