The actor faced a wave of hate when he embarked on Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ project
“The entire movie depends on this casting. They better do it right and Heath Ledger “He has the charisma of a lettuce leaf.”. Nobody was quick to criticize Ledger’s casting as The Joker in The dark knight, the second installment of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. When it became known that he had been chosen to play this popular character, the comments on the internet exploded against him.
“Christopher Nolan is not an idiot, he is not going to sign this cowboy.” “Probably the worst casting of all time. Good job guys, you should cast Crispin Glover since he was born for that role.” “I will NOT watch the movie if he is in it. There are a million better options, you could pick up a random person on the street and it would be better.“. This is just a sample of the complaints left by users in different internet forums and comments on articles. As you can see, Nolan took a gamble by choosing him.
Today, almost 20 years later, the reviews have aged terribly poorly given that Ledger is considered one of the best Jokers in history and, furthermore, one of the best-crafted villains in the superhero genre. There are no doubts here.
In 2006, the actor’s bad reputation was mainly due to several roles that made up his career and the tremendous homophobia that was not hidden at the time. “Excuse me, Heath? Let us remember the days of Knight’s destiny and 10 reasons to hate you. Heath? The Joker? Bad casting. Bad joke”commented another user. Those were the two main titles that gave the actor fame as a teen idol and for which the rest of the public did not take him seriously.
The other job that was put against him was Brokeback MountainAng Lee’s beautiful drama that already showed Ledger’s skills in front of the camera but made many label him “gay” and begin to undervalue him. Some examples: “One word: ‘gay”, “Yeah, cool, Jokeback Mountain”.
Luckily, both Ledger and Nolan’s team turned a deaf ear. Not only that, but they fought fiercely for the actor to work in the film, even going so far as to turn against the studio itself. “When I wrote The dark knightChris [Nolan] had to figure out how we would confront the Joker. Chris had a good meeting with Heath Ledger. And nobody understood it, I didn’t understand it, the studio didn’t understand it. And the fan community was… they pilloried us. ‘Disaster, the worst cast in history!’ The Hollywood Reporter Jonathan Nolan, screenwriter.
“The worst casting of all time”: This is how hard Christopher Nolan had to fight for Heath Ledger to be the Joker
“Chris just stood his ground.. It was a matter of not giving the fans what they’re asking for, but what they really want, which is, ‘Let’s find a really serious actor, someone who’s going to come in and rip it up in this role,'” he continues. What ultimately happened was that Heath Ledger made history and, decades later, we continue to remember him. Earlier this year, Christopher Nolan remembered the performer when he collected the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Oppenheimer. “The only time I’ve been on this stage before was accepting one of these awards on behalf of our dear friend, Heath Ledger. And that was complicated and challenging for me,” he confessed.
