As the cameras started rolling in April 2007, Ledger continued to dig into the Joker's coiled psyche. Gary Oldman, who's played a few nutjobs himself, recalls uncovering one of Ledger's inspirations while shooting a sequence in Gotham's jailhouse. ''It was the scene after we capture the Joker and he's in a holding pen, sitting with his back against the bars,'' Oldman says. ''And Heath is sort of looking at me, kind of under his brow, and then he just starts clapping. I remember going over to him between takes and saying, 'You know, you remind me of Alex from A Clockwork Orange.' And Heath said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Funnily enough, I was just watching that movie in my trailer.'''
As serious a journey as Ledger took into the character, though, nobody recalls seeing the actor fall down any mental rabbit holes. Contrary to the speculation after his death, his work on The Dark Knight didn't appear to ruffle Ledger's psychological health in the slightest. ''Heath got the same kick out of acting that I do,'' Bale says. ''He enjoyed the sort of crazy immersion of acting. He took it incredibly seriously but simultaneously recognized how ridiculous it all is.'' Oldman got a similar impression. ''I know there are these rumors out there that playing the Joker drove him to his grave,'' he says. ''But I never saw anything of that. He was always on time. He knew his part backwards and forwards. I just thought he was a really sweet kid.''
There was one actor on the set of The Dark Knight who did get overly wrapped up in his role — it just didn't happen to be Ledger. ''I always make up my own backstories for my characters,'' says Michael Caine. ''Nobody cares but me, but I do it anyway. And my backstory for Alfred was that he was with the Special Infantry Service — sort of like the Navy SEALs — during World War II. But he got injured. So in order to stay in the service, he took a job in the officers' mess as a barman. And that's where [Bruce Wayne's dad] found him. That's why the accent I use for Alfred is that of an army sergeant. You see, you're not dealing with an ordinary butler here...''
NEXT PAGE: How would the studio sell the movie when audiences now knew the tragic fate of its villain? ''We didn't want to do anything that would seem exploitative.''
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