Why Actors Take Playing The Joker So Seriously

The Dark Knight came out in 2008 and Heath Ledger blew everybody away as the Joker they all they loved it a lot then in 2009 todd phillips made the hangover and that was great too now if I had told you back then that 10 years later Todd Phillips would go on to make a standalone Joker movie you would have been like that's that's an incredibly precise prediction to make why did you break into my house to tell me this well now it's happened I haven't broken into your house but the director of hangover an old school and road trip has made a very serious movie about one of the most popular comic book villains of all time Joaquin Phoenix is stepped into the role and judging by reviews he's done a really good job it's a great movie although to be fair judging by a lot of other reviews this is an awful movie with no redeeming qualities it's it's a little divisive there haven't been a ton of actors who have played this character on the big screen but whenever somebody does it's seen as this massive undertaking there's a certain mysticism to playing this character almost like it's cursed like oh you play the Joker you're gonna go a little crazy you'd better you'd better watch out there's really no other comic book villain that has this kind of reputation where oh man this actor better take this seriously and do a ton of preparation like I don't think Corey Stoll went too crazy with his prep to play yellowjacket an ant-man you know he was just like alright I'm gonna put on a suit and look greedy does that do the trick and Marvel was like yeah do whatever you want honestly we're gonna give you similar CGI powers to ant-man and that's pretty much as far as this is gonna go so today I want to look at what it is about this character that's given it this reputation that makes fans obsessed with how seriously an actor is taking the role you know how did they prepare are they ever gonna be the same how has their life been destroyed by the Joker it's weird cuz it wasn't always like this let's go back a little bit all right follow me let's go so Joker was created in 1940 by Bill Finger Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson they kind of argued over credits amongst themselves but I'm not getting involved in that I'm crediting them all good job all of you and Joker wasn't played by an actor until the 1960s when he was portrayed by this guy cesar romero and cesar did not really take this role seriously at all he certainly didn't seem to feel any pressure from comic book fans because he he even shave his mustache this guy really really liked his mustache it was part of his signature look so he was like no I'm not gonna just paint over that thing literally nobody's gonna notice or care and you can't really blame him for not taking it seriously it wasn't a serious thing it was all super campy I mean Joker challenged Batman to a surfing competition one time I don't remember that happening in the Dark Knight so what happened how did we get from a guy who couldn't be bothered to shave for the role of the Joker to this crazed about how intense a Joker actor has to be enter Jack Nicholson I'm not telling him to enter he's not here with me that's just an expression there were apparently a lot of actors considered for the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie David Bowie Willem Dafoe that could have been a good one Tim Curry he ended up playing a clown anyway even Robin Williams was considered but the role went to Jack Nicholson he had made it pretty clear nine years earlier in the shining that he had it in him to get a little crazy and he was one of the coolest movie stars of his generation so this was perfect casting for the kind of Joker Tim Burton wanted to create this Joker was kind of like a wiseguy Joker like a cool old-timey gangster kind of Joker he was obsessed with fame and fortune in fashion Nicholson's mix of cool and a little crazy fit the bill perfectly the thing is though Jack Nicholson didn't really lose himself in the role of the Joker or anything like that it was a take on the character that was bent in a way that was just perfect for him to play pretty much tailor-made to his strengths as an actor and his style and his mannerisms and hell even his public persona if we're being honest I don't want to go as far as to say he was playing himself but he was kind of playing himself so in terms of preparation for the role he apparently didn't really prepare in fact Michael Keaton told David Letterman that one time when he and Jack Nicholson were sitting around in their costumes Jack looked over at him and said we just gotta let the Wardrobe do the acting kit and people loved it like a lot a lot a lot and that is what really kicked this whole thing off for almost two decades nobody else played the character in live-action Mark Hamill was doing some awesome stuff on the animated side of things but it wasn't till it was a now that Heath Ledger would play the character that people even considered that somebody else could play him and people were mad Jack Nicholson's Joker was so iconic and synonymous with him there was a lot of outrage it's like if in ten years from now they decide to cast Zac Efron as Ironman this good-looking kid who's known for mostly romantic comedies and stuff suddenly he's playing Tony Stark people would not be happy at all they'd be like No Robert Downey jr. is Tony Stark I do not like change that's not to say that Zac Efron would or wanted to make a good Iron Man I mean he probably would not I'd assume but the point is you can see why people were kind of up in arms about Heath Ledger playing the Joker so people were expecting this to not be good that's a lot of pressure and that's a tough starting point for an actor you have to imagine lucky for him he was cast before the script was even written so Heath Ledger had a ton of time to put into developing and prepping this character making it as good as possible while keeping it different from the iconic version people know this was important to Christopher Nolan - by now you've heard the stories about Heath Ledger locking himself up in a hotel room for a month to get himself in the right mindset and the diary he kept and all those things and when the trailer for The Dark Knight finally dropped in December 2007 and people saw where he was taking the character they were like holy mackerel that is I did not expect that that is incredibly Wow good good job and then of course tragically just a month later Heath Ledger passed away the official ruling was that it was an accidental overdose some of his co-stars on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which he was shooting at the time said that Heath Ledger had some kind of like walking pneumonia he was having a lot of trouble sleeping and he was mixing up sleeping pills and prescription drugs as a desperate way of just getting some sleep his sister who was one of the last people to speak with him said that he was in great spirits and showed no signs of depression or anything although she did apparently warn him about mixing his prescriptions so it all really seemed like just a tragic accident but that is not really the story that the press ran with word broke about how much he prepared for the role out dark it was that he locked himself in a hotel room and the role drove him insane the movie ended and he was still haunted by the Joker it made him depressed he just went too deep into the darkness of the character and it drove him mad in real life the media took what by most actual accounts was a tragic accident and morphed it into this thing that was entangled in a comic book role that yeah he did do a lot of prep for but according to the people that were there he had a great time making that movie Derek Murray co-directed a documentary called I am Heath Ledger and he spoke to a whole lot of people that were close to Heath even during production of The Dark Knight he said quote he had the best time making it the Joker was a role he was enthralled by it he was proud of it but that version of events is a whole lot less interesting to people than the version that has him being driven to depression by the Joker so that that dark version is the one we mostly hear about and associate with Heath Ledger's Joker and so where did that leave Jared Leto when he was offered the role of the Joker years later he has to step into this role that the first time around not counting Cesar Romero was played iconically by Jack Nicholson and the time after that was played iconically again by Heath Ledger I mean that's that's nuts that's like if you start in an IT job and your boss is like hey no pressure but the guy who had this job before you was Steve Jobs and the guy before him was Bill Gates so good luck buddy all eyes were on Jared Leto and most of those eyes were not happy so he goes all into the character in his own way what choice did he have he apparently never broke character on set throughout filming he met with real-life Psychopaths he sent a star disgusting gifts as the Joker he fully committed to it because after the last two interpretations of the role people would not settle for anything less now unfortunately for him the character went in a direction that people didn't like very much at all certain decisions were made that were you know questionable I can't say that I like the hahaha tattoos nor the the damaged tattoo not great but Jared Leto definitely felt that pressure and definitely put a lot of work into preparing for the role which after two legendary incarnation and a lot of dramatization from the press has taken on this kind of prestige so now here we are with mr. Phoenix of course the question on people's minds is well well how did he prepare for the role that what did he do when we saw first images of him as the character it was clear that he had lost a ton of weight people were like oh boy another actor diving into the dark dark role oh man this he's gonna lose his mind it already looks like he's gonna be scarred for life this is gonna be nuts strap in except it's not it's not that nuts guys don't get me wrong he lost 52 pounds to play the character and that is super impressive dedication but he's an actor that's played around with his weight before and he's far from being the only one to do that and apparently he actually wanted the Joker to be fat todd phillips is the one who asked for a super thin version Phoenix also read some books about political assassinations and he studied videos of people suffering from pathological laughter that's like fairly standard prepped by Hollywood standards an actor prepares literally that's the name of a fundamental book on acting he did what an actor is supposed to do and sure he apparently stormed off of set several times but other than that he's been pretty vocal about enjoying the process of filming Joker and whatnot still people are fascinated with digging for dirt on what effect the role must have had on him what dark stories from the set are we missing out on is he gonna be scarred for life there's just this whole narrative around playing the Joker that stemmed from the passing of Heath Ledger and the way that that was presented to everybody people loved the Joker and that's great but I don't think we need to be putting this kind of pressure on the actors that play the character that they're supposed to go super method with it and if they don't check into a psych ward after production well then clearly they haven't done a good job so I say everybody just relax a little bit you know let's let's put a smile on that face except in like a in a happy in an actual happy way thanks for watching that video everyone I hope you liked it do you think too much pressures being put on actors who play the Joker let me know your thoughts in the comments section don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more videos you [Music]

Channel: Screen Rant

Views: 6,229,114

Keywords: Joker, the joker, joaquin phoenix, heath ledger, jack nicholson, batman, jared leto, suicide squad, warner bros, dc, dceu, todd phillips, method acting, preparation, cesar romero, mustache, actors who played joker, best joker, joker origin, why so serious, dc comics, video essay, ryan george, screen rant, screenrant, joker 2019, trailer joker, batman joker, joker harley quinn

Id: liPzegV3Wjs

Length: 11min 7sec (667 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019

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Because irony is awesome?