Michael Jai White Talks About How Heath Ledger Was On Set of The Dark Knight

yeah learning you've had some amazing teachers and been on some incredible sets one of the biggest of all time The Dark Knight with Christopher Nolan but he was a different person at that time he wasn't the Christopher Nolan that we all know now working with him did you see the genius already was he still trying to figure out how to talk to you guys or how did that go it was completely different than I thought mmm I thought oh my god this guy did Steve this guy did I was like this guy's a genius yeah I get on set and I'm like how do I talk to him you know I'm thinking like that yeah and so the first scene I'm doing I was like well you know do you uh you know we I'm with my guys and the scene starts do you want to feel like we've been in here for 10 minutes or like an hour he's like you know I didn't think about that what do you think I'm like what and I'm like in you know oh my guys have English accents yeah but I clearly have an American action do you want me do you want us to sound the same you want me to do an English accent it's like I thought about that what do you think I'm like really yeah it was the most relaxed atmosphere ever yeah this dude was so chill who let you play not only that the whole set was playing yeah it was not one tense serious moment or anything which is crazy when you think that performance from from Ledger was having a boss I mean we we were basically giving him a wide berth and just like not bother he's the one initiating the conversations and we're doing like magic tricks and all kinds of silly things it was like wow and the DP Wally like we hold up camera for for the you know just trading jokes yeah and then when we're done it's like oh let's get to shooting it was us I don't think I've ever been on a more relaxed stage yeah do you know when when that because obviously it's one of the most incredible performances of all time in Heath Ledger with with the Joker do you know when you would day when you're just doing your scene giver and he walks in you go that everyone's gonna be talking about this or is this one of those things because a lot of people know famously when he's announced as Joker this guy can't be the Joker like the guy the guy from these the team who is gonna be in the Joker Brooklyn guys a junior and the Joker and so he does it do you know right away that this is gonna be special yeah man he was and that's another thing he was so incredibly chill it's the first day that he comes in you know where we shoot half of the day he's in full makeup cameras beside him he's talking to the boardroom we break for lunch I asked the director so what are we shooting after after lunch and he says we're gonna finish up this side of the room yeah I said so do you mean to tell me that Heath has been in hours of makeup and he's not gonna be on camera anytime today he said yeah I was like wow he just did that for us that's awesome you know that's for real it's rare and coming from the guy who played spawn [Laughter] will be in t-shirts and jeans yeah if I can get if I don't have to be alive in the lines but you're not gonna address it yeah my imagine I look like this right see this picture that's what you're talking to right and action yeah you know you talked about him having so much fun with it and but also being so deep into it and obviously there's been a lot of talk about after he did pass away how much effect this character had on him what do you think about that drives me up a wall hmm because people want to write the the the story that this dark character had consumed him drives me up a wall they people guess people's imagination that's it that's the story they wanted you know no this dude had fun like you know and cut so anyway it was just like that and you could see his playful character because that thing with the with the when he comes out of the examination room and he does the hand sanitizer you know he's playing you know he just did that before a goof or yeah or the thing when he's yeah I was gonna say even when he couldn't stay he's having a ball he's modulating his voice he's even asking us us the guys who were they players and everything else you know what do you think he would do it he would do a voice modulation and one of the times when we were face to face he does this really you know Crowley wanted kind of it's a Tom Waits ish yeah and I'm like dude I like that he asked me what I think and I'm like man I like when you do that kind of let's call that one and he's like you really think someone like yeah I'm like my god this dude's ass 'king me I mean that doesn't usually happen but on that that set it was so incredibly chilled that's the that was the environment so and in the truth of the matter is he passed away when he was doing Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus it wasn't even this movie you know much longer that was so yeah it's in its people just trying to yes a narrative baby yeah yeah yeah I appreciate

Channel: Collider Podcasts

Views: 5,859,241

Keywords: collider podcasts, collider podcast network, podcasts, movie podcast, michael jai white, collider live, heath ledger, the dark knight, joker, christopher nolan

Id: VDF01bt3ey0

Length: 5min 50sec (350 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Hieillua]

Not the Chris Nolan we all know now? Did you see the genius?

Acting like TDK was his start.He did movies like The Prestige, Memento and Batman Begins before TDK lol.

[u/[deleted]]

Michael Jai White doesn't care that Michael Bisping's dog died.

[u/aluck119]

... so she thinks TDK made Nolan... right.