Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight is legendary, and 10 years on from his classic role – which earned him a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – new details about his work on the character have come to light.
A new book called 100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die delves into the history of the Caped Crusader and even includes a previously unpublished interview with Ledger.
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There have been numerous rumours about the steps that Ledger went to in order to develop the character, but now, The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has explained one unusual influence Heath had for his character.
Alongside famous rabble-rousers such as Sid Vicious and Alex from A Clockwork Orange, he also bizarrely drew from ventriloquist dummies.
Nolan said: "The way they would talk and the way they would move and all kinds of peculiar ideas that I wasn't really able to get a handle on until I saw him start to perform the scenes, and start to show how the character moved and how the character gestured and how the character spoke, with this extraordinarily unpredictable voice.
"The range of the voice, from its highest pitch to its lowest pitch, is very extreme, and where it shifts is unpredictable and sudden."
The same book also revealed that Ledger tried to get Christian Bale to punch him for real during their intense interrogation scene.
Bale – who is notorious for his method acting, which has seen him lose lots of weight, and, erm, gain lots of weight – explained that even he thought Heath was taking things too far with his demands to be punched.
"He was slamming himself around," explained Bale. "And there were tiled walls inside of that set which were cracked and dented from him hurling himself into them. His commitment was total."
Heath Ledger died shortly before The Dark Knight was released in 2008 due to an accidental overdose, although numerous rumours circulated after his death that the intense role played a part in his death.
However, his family have since spoken out to refute those rumours. His sister Kate told The Telegraph: "Every report was coming out that he was depressed and that [the role] was taking this toll on him, and we're going, 'Honestly, it was the absolute opposite'.
"It couldn't be more wrong. He had an amazing sense of humour, and I guess maybe only his family and friends knew that, but he was having fun. He wasn't depressed about the Joker."
Nolan has compared casting One Direction star Harry Styles in Dunkirk to Heath Ledger's Joker, which he faced a lot of backlash for at the time.
As for DC's Joker, the character might be getting an origin movie without the latest actor to play the Clown Prince of Crime, Jared Leto – although Leto is meant to be working on a standalone Joker movie and there's a chance he could reappear in Suicide Squad 2.
100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is out now.
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Laurence Mozafari (he/him) is a multi-award winning journalist, editor, and presenter. A former Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy, Laurence previously held roles as the site's Editor, Deputy Editor, and Associate Editor focusing on news, social, and video. Laurence hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed with Peaky Blinders in 2019. He also hosts his own podcast production, Time of My Life, where he interviews fascinating elders about their life lessons, including Only Fools and Horses' Sir David Jason, Star Trek’s George Takei and Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh.
Laurence was named Editorial Director – Youth Audience at Reach in early 2025. Prior to joining Digital Spy, he was previously at Bauer Media working as Digital Editor of Heat magazine's website Heatworld.com, and has also worked at and written for Sky, NME, Q magazine, Grazia, Closer, FHM and dedicated careers website GoThinkBig. He secured a first-class BA journalism degree at Staffordshire University, along with several NCTJ qualifications, and now has 14 years' experience in digital publishing covering TV, movies, music, gaming, tech, showbiz, and travel.
Laurence has been a broadcasting contributor on television and radio, including KISS, Heat Radio, BBC Radio London, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast.
He is also a visiting lecturer at various universities teaching journalism, including City, University of London, Nottingham Trent, Staffordshire University and London Metropolitan. Laurence has won numerous awards in his journalism career, including the BSME Talent Award’s Best Deputy Editor, the PPA's 30 Under 30, and the New Editor and Editor of the Year at the AOP and BSMEs. He led Digital Spy to win PPA's Digital Content Team of the Year twice, along with the British Media Awards’ Brand of the Year in 2021.
Laurence joined the committee for the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and was named vice-chair in 2025. He has since hosted panels with CEOs of Immediate Media and the Media Trust at the PPA Festival, as well as presenting his own radio show on Green Man Radio at Green Man Festival in 2022. Laurence is also a Brits voting academy member.
Laurence has been lucky enough to interview numerous celebrities, actors, and musicians throughout his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved his hair, Jimmy Carr loved his coat and Antonio Banderas gave a shout-out to his mum. Laurence has covered set visits for The Witcher on Netflix and Marvel’s Inhumans, he got Daisy Ridley to do a Chewbacca impression and loves Marvel, PlayStation, Glastonbury and craft beer. Linkedin
