German Documentary Reveals Heath Ledger’s Joker Diary (video)

It has been said when the late Heath Ledger got into roles he really got into them. And when he portrayed Batman's arch-villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, for which he won a posthumous Oscar for, Ledger went even deeper, including keeping a "Joker diary."

Heath-Ledger-The-Joker-The-Dark-KnightIt has been said when the late Heath Ledger got into roles he really got into them.  And when he portrayed Batman’s arch-villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, for which he won a posthumous Oscar for, Ledger went even deeper, including keeping a “Joker diary.”

Ledger’s father Kim showed pages of his Joker diary on the German documentary series Too Young to Die and discussed his son’s role.  Ledger locked himself inside a hotel room for weeks in order to study the Joker’s criminal and psychopathic mindset.  The diary is filled with pictures and handwritten notes, including pictures of Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange and clippings from Batman comics.

Kim points out that one scene in particular was very personal for Ledger, saying, “The hospital scene is interesting because when he was a kid, his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse. He was really funny like that. He also was in the movie.”

In a particularly poignant moment, “BYE BYE” is scrawled over the final page of the journal and Kim remarks, “It was hard to see this.”

Ledger was found dead of a drug overdose in New York City on January 22, 2008.

via The New York Daily News

Leave a Reply

Scroll to Top