Joker from the "Dark Knight". Actor Heath Ledger

The Joker from the "Dark Knight" is one of the most sinister negative characters in the cinema. This effect is achieved not by a frightening appearance, on the contrary, the villain uses makeup and costumes at minimum. The danger comes from his unpredictable actions, in which logic is often completely absent.

Some viewers, who first saw the legendary blockbuster about Batman, do not know who played the Joker in the "Dark Knight". All the most interesting about this character and actor, brilliantly embodied his image on the screen - in our article.

History of the Joker

This negative character first appeared on comics pages from DC Comics. He is one of Batman's main enemies. His suit and weapons are stylized for clown's inventory. The Joker from the "Dark Knight" is a complete mystery. His past remains a mystery. It has been on the pages of comics for more than 70 years, but who he is, and how he became a supervillain, is unknown. There are several versions of the appearance of the Joker. According to one of them, he was either a small gangster, or an illusionist-loser who joined a criminal group. Once, when trying to rob the villains, they ran into the police and Batman. In the exchange of fire, everyone died, except for one criminal who fell into a vat of chemicals. He survived, but his face and hair were disfigured with acid, and the unfortunate after the incident lost his mind. He called himself a Joker. So Batman has a new enemy.

The second version of the Joker's past is related to the 1989 film Batman. The name of the future villain was Jack Napier. He was the main assistant to a dangerous gangster who learned about the Joker's connection with his wife. He betrays his partner, and he falls into the vat with acid. Jack survived, but was disfigured: the skin became pale, his hair became green, and his nails black. He turned to a plastic surgeon for help, but because of poor quality work, he suffered muscle damage, and Napier's face froze for ever. In the same film, Batman learns in the new enemy of the criminal who killed his parents.

In the "Dark Knight" Joker talks about two versions of the appearance of his scary scars. First, he says that his own father disfigured him, and then tells that he wounded himself because of problems in his family life.

The film "The Dark Knight" - Heath Ledger as a Joker

This is the sequel to the picture "Batman: The Beginning". The film was released in 2008. The director of this and the previous tape is Christopher Nolan. He also took off the last part of the trilogy - "The Dark Knight: The Renaissance of the Legend". The joker from the "Dark Knight" immediately attracted the attention of the audience. He was strikingly different from the images that Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson embodied in their time on the screen . The latter were clamped tightly in the script. Their villains are good in their own way, but they lack some insanity.

Many did not recognize because of the makeup, who played the Joker in the "Dark Knight". The news that this image was created and brilliantly embodied by the young actor Heath Ledger surprised even his fans. He had already had to play different roles - a criminal who robbed banks to help impoverished farmers, in love with a partner of a cowboy, a noble knight, a petty crook using his superstition with the German superstitions. But the role of a truly crazy criminal Ledger got for the first time.

Appearance, psychology and abilities of villain

For the movie, the character's story was changed. He lost his name, but his appearance remained practically unchanged. For realism, a careless make-up is put on the face of the Joker, which in some scenes is almost absent. Instead of a clown's painted smile, there are two scars stretching from the corners of the mouth to the ears. Left the character long light green hair and dark circles around the eyes.

The Joker from the "Dark Knight" is a psychopath, a maniac and a schizophrenic. At the same time he has the highest intellect. The villain is an ingenious planner who is subtly versed in the psychology and motivation of other people. Therefore, many of his plans could not be broken even by the shrewd Batman.

Preparing the actor for the role

Heath Ledger was very seriously approached to work on creating the image of his hero. For this he closed for a month in the hotel room, so that nothing distracted him. It was necessary to come up with a gait, a manner of behavior, distinctive features and the voice of the criminal. The joker in the movie "The Dark Knight", according to the actor's idea, was supposed to bring real fear to the viewer. It was necessary that everyone believed that the villain does not bluff and does not specifically induce horror, but enjoys what is happening.

The voice and intonations of his hero were most difficult for the actor. In the end, he combined in this image of the cinematic villain features and manner of behavior of Joker Nicholson, Alex from "Clockwork Orange" and Sid Viches (musician from the scandalously known group Sex Pistols).

Good dubbing - one of the components of the success of the picture

Much in the positive perception of the hero (especially when it comes to a foreign film) depends on the quality of the voice. Few know who sounded the Joker in The Dark Knight. The work was extremely difficult - it was required to find the right intonations of the character. Heath Ledger worked hard on the voice of his character, so it was important to convey all of his shades correctly. Joker sounded actor Vladimir Zaitsev, superbly coped with a difficult task.

The new Joker story - who will replace Ledger

In 2016, the release of a new film on the universe of Batman - "Squad of suicides" is planned. The main characters in the picture will be supervillains. It will not do without the Joker. As it became known, Jared Leto will play it.

The negative impact of the role of the Joker

The last fully completed film of the actor was the blockbuster "The Dark Knight". Heath Ledger gave it all up. As he admitted in an interview, the role of the Joker, a maniac psychopath, was given to him with great difficulty. The exhaustion was not physical, but psychological. Ledger began to sleep only 2 hours a day, which further exacerbated his condition. Negatively affected the actor and parting with Michelle Williams, the mother of his daughter.

On January 22, 2008, the actor was found lifeless in his apartment in Manhattan. Death came from acute intoxication as a result of taking several drugs: painkillers, tranquilizers and analgesics. The actor slept very badly and was treated for pneumonia. The dose of medications taken by him was fatal. Hit Lojder was only 28 years old at the time of his departure from life. The role of the Joker was appreciated - for her posthumously the actor received an "Oscar".

It can not be said that in the death of the actor, the image of the Joker played by him is to blame. He only became one of the reasons that influenced the psychoemotional and physical state of Ledger. But from this the image of the maniac psychopath does not become less sinister.