Heath Ledger Wanted Christian Bale To Hit Him In ‘The Dark Knight’

Heath Ledger‘s beautifully unhinged performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan‘s “The Dark Knight” already has an aura of myth around it. Not just because it would be the actor’s final role before his tragic passing, but also because of his dedication to creating a villain unlike anything superhero movies have seen before (or since). And to illustrate just how determined Ledger was to push the envelope, Christian Bale has a pretty incredible anecdote about making the movie.

In the new book “100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die” by Joseph McCabe, Bale reveals that in the first scene he shot together with Ledger, his co-star encouraged him to actually physically attack him on camera. Here’s the story:

Our first scene was in an interrogation room together, and I saw that he’s a helluva actor who’s completely committed to it and totally gets the tone that Chris [Nolan] is trying to create with this. We’re not going for actors revealing their enjoyment of playing a wacky caricature. We’re treating this as serious drama. You go into character and you stay in the character. I love that. I find that so ridiculous that I love it, and I take that very seriously. Heath was definitely embracing that. When he was in the makeup and the garb he was in character the whole time; and when he took it off he was absolutely fantastic company to be around.

As you see in the movie, Batman starts beating the Joker and realizes that this is not your ordinary foe. Because the more I beat him the more he enjoys it. The more I’m giving him satisfaction. Heath was behaving in a very similar fashion. He was kinda egging me on. I was saying, “You know what, I really don’t need to actually hit you. It’s going to look just as good if I don’t.” And he’s going, “Go on. Go on. Go on….” He was slamming himself around, and there were tiled walls inside of that set which were cracked and dented from him hurling himself into them. His commitment was total.

Bale doesn’t say if he eventually landed a couple blows on Ledger, but there’s no doubt about the intensity the duo captured in that interrogation room sequence. Check out it for yourself below. [io9]