Everyone says that you are kind of fearless about taking on this role — is that really true?

I definitely feared it. Anything that fears me I guess excites me at the same time and, so yeah. I don’t know if I was fearless, but I certainly had to put on a brave face and believe that I have something up my sleeve and something that was different.

Did you ever watch Jack Nicholson’s version of the Joker?

Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, not after I got the role, but I’ve seen it many times before. I was a huge fan of it and but you know, having seen Chris’s first film, I knew that there was a big difference between a Chris Nolan film and a Tim Burton film. And so therefore there was enough room for a fresh portrayal. And so I kind of steered away from what Jack did. Hopefully.

About the process of getting into the Joker — there is the idea that he may have once been a normal person. Unlike say, Jack’s Joker was.

Yeah, I think, I think most of the villains in... the Chris Nolan style of Batman movies, these are normal people or once were normal people. And I definitely... sort of came to my own conclusions about his background....

How long did your makeup take?

About an hour or an hour to an hour and a half kind of thing. It’s pretty quick. They’ve come up with a new technology for the mouthpiece as the scars are made out of silicone not prosthetic. And so they have free silicone stamps that they put on here, here, and here. My whole bottom lip is fake essentially and they glue it on in here, and so... it takes a half-hour to put those on. And then 20 minutes to half-an-hour to paint the face.

What did your child think? Was she scared?

Um, she just had frowned at him. You know, I don’t think she connected me to him.

Preparing for the role...

Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely the icing on the cake to do all the research prior to shooting for sure, and there is something about, you know, the metaphor to work behind the mask and from within a mask. It always gives you the license to do whatever you want for the freedom, for your feeling like you’re being judged or viewed, and so I’m literally wearing the mask now, which is aimed to empower me twice as much to kind of feel free and feel unrestrained, yeah.

How did you get into this evil character?

I don’t know, I think we all have it in us. I don’t know... sometimes I’ll connect some scary thoughts. It’s kind of like eating raw meat. I don’t know what that does to your mouth and your eyes, and simple little visuals like that. That kind of twists the mind a little bit, and it feels evil when it’s not necessarily an evil thought, but it may look and come across as evil. And I don’t know, I guess the rest is just trusting like your research and trusting all the definitions of these words of a psychopath. And then just running with it. I don’t know, I’m trying not to give it too much thought at this point.

Do you have big fight scenes with Christian?

Christian’s beat me up a couple times, hit me, and I don’t mean in the jaw.

The Joker gets beaten up quite a lot.

Yet, not hard. He’s a total gentleman, but you know… been physical, but I enjoyed that I get battered and bruised, I like feeling pain too. It’s kind of fun. I like it.

Tell us more about your scenes with Christian then, because you are the nemesis, the iconic Batman nemesis.

Well, firstly, it’s an honour to work with Christian and I mean, the cast in general is pretty outstanding. I mean, every single one of these people I’ve wanted to work with and... have inspired me at some point. So it’s ridiculous, like, the cast and the first thing was with Gary Oldman, which was mind blowing. And then after he leaves the interrogation room. Batman arrives and... suddenly I realised what movie I was in, and it’s quite fun actually, because you know… nothing really gets under my skin, including Batman. It’s quite easy as an actor because it’s kind of funny seeing somebody dressed up in a bat suit, it’s easy to laugh at it, but he’s incredibly professional and incredibly focused and one of the loveliest guys I’ve ever worked with and a brilliant actor. Even... how serious he takes it and how he transforms and his voice..., and how aggressive he gets. It’s really, really inspiring stuff.

So the concept is that Batman uses fear and the Joker feels no fear of Batman. Is that part of the relationship?

Sure, yeah, it’s kind of, you know they can’t really live without each other. It’s that kind of relationship, like they have no real purpose in life without each other. So they don’t really want each other dead.

Now, how about working with Maggie Gyllenhaal? Obviously you worked with her brother (Jake) before, so did you know her from that?

Yeah, I did. Yeah, that’s been great to… I’m mean, it’s fun.

Yes, I see that. (Indicating photo on stand — Joker’s knife to her face)

Yep… you know it’s been a lot of fun and you know, she’s also a Brooklynite and so we’ve been just kind of trading a lot of family stories, and it’s been fun.

Could you describe what sets Chris Nolan apart from other directors, what his quality is like?

He drinks a lot more tea than I’ve ever seen anyone ever drink. That definitely sets him apart. He’s so young, but seems so old, and he seems just incredibly mature and organised and relaxed.... He has a wonderful relationship with his DP. While he is here and those two seem to have the entire world mapped out. And we just kind of follow in their paths. I couldn’t imagine what it’s like directing a movie. Besides, but he manages to keep a clear head. And he’s super organised he actually.... surprisingly enough.... He shoots as he goes.... makes a lot of it up as he goes and he’s very flexible that way.

Since he’s also the co-writer, did he involve you in any fine tuning of the Joker’s character?

Me? No. Not really. It was all there; it was all on page. They did a really good job.

He seems so serious, how do

you know if he likes your

performance?

I guess when he laughs, you know, whenever he’s not taking it too seriously which is quite often. It’s just the way he holds himself. He seems like this very old soul kind of but he is youthful when he talks about his children....

Everybody has been saying how dark the film is. Is there any moment of twisted fun that the Joker brings with him to the table?

Yeah, yeah, all the time. Yeah. There is nothing consistent about him at all. So he’s not consistently dark or consistently fun or funny. He’s just going up and down the whole time.

Did you have fun in terms of playing it?

Yeah, it’s the most fun I’ve had playing a role. I’m really surprised Chris knew that I could do it, or thought that I had something in me like this. And I don’t know how he came to cast me to do it. But yeah, it is the bomb. It’s definitely the most fun I’ve had, the most freedom I had and the work schedule is great. I work two days and have three weeks off. It’s been like that for six months.

Why is your clown posse so scary?

It’s good that they’re silent but deadly.

We understand these stunts are as real as possible, and there’s not much CGI.

Christian did want to do his own, but I know Christian. He went and stood up on the Sears Tower himself. They took him right up to the very top, and they took his feet right to the edge and they put him on a thin wire and he just leaned off the tower like this. So I thought that was a pretty cool story. There’s been a lot of car chases and there’s an IMAX camera that got busted up, jammed between a truck and a car and they just replaced it and kept on shooting as you do.

Is this the most expensive movie you’ve ever made?

Yes, definitely.

Does it have an influence on the whole?

On my performance?

Yeah, is it different from doing something that’s an indie?

Yeah, it’s completely different. It doesn’t really change that space of time between action and cut; that’s always the same no matter what’s around you. It’s the same place you live in, but yet the different ball game is quite amazing. It’s quite jaw-dropping. It’s fun yeah, yeah it is....

Does the Joker have a special vehicle or mode of transportation?

He doesn’t have rollerblades, although that would be funny. No, he doesn’t have like, a set of wheels. He steals whatever is around.

Any other gimmicks?

No, not a lot of gimmicks. He’s just bloody, yeah.

So is it gory then?

It’s a PG 13, isn’t it.... I remember going into this thinking it was a PG 13, but I wanted to kind of present... a kind of X-rated performance, if I could, so that’s kind of what I’ve been going for and the power of suggestion... is pretty... dark. But there’s not a lot of gore.

Have you run into Nicholson since you got the part?

Oh, I wish. I never run into him, but I’d like to, I may not literally, but…

FILMOGRAPHY

The Dark Knight (2008) — The Joker

I’m Not There (2007) — Robbie

Candy (2006) — Dan

Casanova (2005) — Casanova

Brokeback Mountain (2005) — Ennis Del Mar

The Brothers Grimm (2005) — Jacob Grimm

Lords of Dogtown (2005) — Skip

The Order (2003) —

Alex Bernier

Ned Kelly (2003) — Ned Kelly

The Four Feathers (2002) — Harry Feversham

Monster’s Ball (2001) — Sonny Grotowski

A Knight’s Tale (2001) — Sir William Thatcher / Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland

The Patriot (2000) — Gabriel Martin

Two Hands (1999) — Jimmy

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) — Patrick Verona

Paws (1997) — Oberon

Blackrock (1997) — Toby

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) is in post-production where Heath plays Tony

Lindy Hemming, costume designer, The Dark Knight on Heath and Joker’s makeover

We are wondering about the Joker... Whose costume is hanging up in the room. How did you approach the Joker?

First of all, I have to say that his costume without him in it is nothing, because Heath’s so physical and he’s fantastic as the Joker.

It’s quite old and tatty...

The logic, if you like, what we were searching for at the very beginning of how to do this Joker, were images... I was looking through images of people who might have dressed like that in the pop world and the fashion world. You can imagine Vivienne Westwood meets Johnny Lydon, Sid Vicious, Pete Doherty. You think of all those people who dress themselves up and are very interested in their appearance and then we added into it the life of him. So whatever it is that’s wrong with him, made him be like this, he doesn’t care about himself at all, really. He’s very sweaty and... He probably doesn’t have a proper home. We were trying to make him sort of a... I don’t want to say vagrant... a back-story for him that he really doesn’t look after himself.

The other end of the scale from Bruce Wayne...

Exactly. And then we had to talk about the whole thing of wearing purple. And first of all we had to discuss why he wears that look, what it is. I wanted him very much to have a leer already and then to take the thing which comes from last year’s fashion on the catwalks, where they were putting on sort of Fine Young Cannibals-type makeup. And for it not to be, per se, a clown’s makeup, but just somebody who exaggerates the scar so it’s asymmetrical, his red mouth. And a much punkier feel... Anarchic feel. And therefore scruffier, grungier and therefore when you see him move, he’s slightly twitchier or edgy. He’s certainly not a dapper gentleman.

Did you take any inspiration from the comics as well? Were you pointed towards any stories at all?

Truly I can’t tell you which stories they are, I know which reference pictures they are, but yes I tore lots and lots of pictures... and I can’t tell you which books they were from anymore. We could find out for you, but I just had lots and lots of certain images of him.

Was it hard not to have Jack Nicholson in the back of your mind when you were working on it?

Well, not really. It’s like Bond as soon as you meet the new actor... Of course when you start, that’s what you’ve seen, but then you try to throw all that away and that’s why you do a lot of research into more modern people. I made big storyboards up for Chris and Heath of people who I believed could... Iggy Pop’s one, I had a lot of people like that who I believed were edgy and looked somehow Joker-ish. And tried to cut the Jack Nicholson, dandyish look away and think of more modern types. And then when I met Heath, who I didn’t know really very much before then, then he got into it in a big way and I could see how it would be completely different.

Who is your favourite Batman baddie? Tell t2@abpmail.com