Take a brief but fascinating look inside Heath Ledger’s Joker diary

For those who consider THE DARK KNIGHT to be overrated, one fact about the movie that cannot be argued is the sheer brilliance in Heath Ledger‘s performance as The Joker. When news of Ledger’s passing hit the news before the release of the film, many drew conclusions that his method approach to becoming The Joker may have played a significant part in his death. Ledger discussed difficulty sleeping and other issues that began with his role in THE DARK KNIGHT.

A tragic loss for his family, we may never know everything that led to his death and are stuck only with what was left behind. One of those items was a journal that Ledger created when developing his iconic take on The Joker. Ledger discussed this journal when talking about THE DARK KNIGHT and how he locked himself in a London hotel room for a month to create it.

Ledger’s father Kim currently has the diary and he shared it with a French television crew. This brief look inside Heath Ledger‘s approach to the role is fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. It truly shows the levels of depravity he took himself to in his own mind to achieve the powerful, Oscar-winning performance that we will be able to treasure forever. Check out the video below with the English translation below that.

This is the Joker’s diary. In order to inhabit his character, he locked himself up in a hotel room for weeks. He would do that. He liked to dive into his characters, but this time he really took it up a notch. The hospital scene is interesting because when he was a kid, his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse. He was really funny like that. He also was in the movie. This is a make-up test which was done eight months before. Before the end of the shooting he wrote “bye bye” on the back of the page. It was hard to see this.