Is 2023 the year Jonathan Majors becomes a household name? With “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” and “Creed III” in theaters soon and “Magazine Dreams” doing well with critics at Sundance last month, it sure looks that way. And for Majors, it’s the fruition of a dream whose inspiration comes from a seminal moment as a high-school senior, when he watched Heath Ledger‘s legendary performance as The Joker in Christopher Nolan‘s “The Dark Knight.”
IndieWire (via EW) reports that Majors’ first viewing of Ledger in Nolan’s 2008 film fueled his ambition to become an actor. ““First of all, he’s gorgeous,” Majors told EW in a new interview. “He’s got that fucking jawline, and he didn’t give a fuck. He threw his body around. He was so full. And I went, ‘I’m coming for that. I’m inspired.’ It takes a lot, you feel me? To be inspired.”
Are there traces of Ledger’s edgy liveliness in Majors’ villainous turns in “Quantumania” and “Creed III”? Fans will have to judge for themselves. But Majors also credits his upbringing for the complexity he brings to his roles. “The way I grew up, the people I grew up around, drug dealers, killers, murderers, everybody was just coming out of jail,” Majors continued. “Everybody had an ankle monitor on. So I knew the complexity of the guys I grew up with. Yeah, you did do that, but you also did this.” Majors saw a similar duality in Ledger’s Joker. “And what I saw in Heath, and in everything he did, was: it’s this and that,” the actor added.
For Majors, inspiration is everything when it comes to acting, fitness, even friendships. “If you can find a haven of comfort in being seen, that’s helpful,” Majors said. “If you can watch a film and be inspired to work out, great. Inspired to love somebody better, great. Inspired to be a better best friend, great. That’s the business I’m in.” And Majors isn’t shy about how affecting “The Dark Knight” was to him as a teenager. This past December, the actor wrote an essay for Variety about Nolan’s superhero film, declaring it a “rare” movie that “entertains at the highest cinematic rung while simultaneously challenging its audience with each frame to reach higher in their own self and social knowledge.”
For Majors, watching “The Dark Knight” opened up many possibilities, most of all his drive to become an actor. ““My 18-year-old self sat in the cinema long after the credits rolled,” wrote Majors, “gobsmacked by a beauty and complexity of humanity hitherto unwitnessed in cinema and, dare I say, in my own existence.” Majors isn’t the only Hollywood name to recently champion Nolan’s film. In the wake of “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way Of Water” getting Oscar Best Picture noms, Steven Spielberg averred that “The Dark Knight” “would have garnered a Best Picture nomination” had it been released after the Academy Awards expanded that award’s nomination list from 5 to 10 films.
It’s hard to disagree with Majors and Spielberg about their feelings about “The Dark Knight.” That film’s release was a major event in July 2008, arguably ushering in Hollywood’s superhero movie craze more than “Iron Man” earlier that year. And even if Nolan’s film didn’t get a Best Picture nom, it still racked up eight other ones at that year’s Oscars, including a posthumous Best Supporting Actor win for Ledger. Alas, while “The Dark Knight” and Ledger’s performance remain timeless, it took eleven more years for a superhero film to nab a Best Picture nom: Ryan Coogler‘s “Black Panther” became the first in 2019.
But who knows? Maybe more superhero films will get Best Picture noms in the future. What’s more likely, though, is Majors following in Ledger’s footsteps with an Oscar win for an acting performance. Majors is undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s most charismatic rising stars, and if his films this year don’t usher in a golden age for him, expect his upcoming roles to do so.
