Tag Archives: Joker

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How far will an actor go to achieve perfection?

Image shows actor Christian Bale in a scene for the film The Machinist.
Image shows actor Christian Bale in a scene for the film The Machinist.

Image via: IGN.com

For many actors, the role is more than just learning the lines. Actors are often required to push their bodies to the limits as well as prepare themselves mentally. The transformations that ensue are often quite staggering.

Christian Bale is a notable actor for transforming his body for a role. For several roles he has lost weight, built muscle and even gained weight. This constant fluctuation is certainly no easy feat. For his role in insomniac thriller, The Machinist, Christian Bale reportedly lost 28.5kg. To lose this weight, Christian relied on a strict diet of a single serving of fish and 1 piece of fruit a day. Currently, Christian holds the record for the most amount of weight lost for any role, and it certainly shows. His biggest achievement however, was for his next role.

After production was finished for The Machinist, Christian Bale was cast as Batman in Christopher Nolan’s reboot. Bale was tasked with reaching a typical Batman like physique something that wasn’t evident in The Machinist. A high carb diet and intensive muscle workouts results in Christian Bale gaining 44.9 KG over the course of production.

Recently, Christian had to get fatter for his role in American Hustle, eating an abundant amount of fast food. He certainly has quite the belly in the film.

In terms of mental preparation, the late Heath Ledger certainly wins the award for his commitment to the role of the Joker in The Dark Knight. Heath threw himself at the role of the main antagonist, locking himself in a room for weeks on end, with only himself for company. During this time, Heath Ledger wrote a diary and practiced his speech, really getting into character. One of his diary entries read that, “I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath – someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts.”

As his performance shows, Heath Ledger certainly grasped the character of the Joker including subtleties such as mannerisms and facial expression. I’m you’ll agree, the voice he used, is chilling and memorable to say the least. Speaking of which Heath Ledger is believed to have taken inspiration from an interview conducted with singer Tom Waits in 1979. You can certainly see the similarities in the interview below.

Acting isn’t just about saying the right lines for many actors. The lengths actors go to in order to achieve the perfect role is clearly extraordinary.

 

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Surprising improvisation in film

A man in a hospital gown wearing smudged clown make up walks away from a hospital explostion
A man in a hospital gown wearing smudged clown make up walks away from a hospital explostion

Image via forum.blu-ray.com

Not all of our favourite moments in film were planned. In fact, many magic movie moments were
not in the script at all. Inside Film has been looking into just a few moments in film that you
probably didn’t know were improvised.

The Dark Knight: Hospital Explosion
During the filming of the second instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, a scene
involving blowing up a hospital should have been a failure, had it not been for the late Heath
Ledger thinking quickly on his feet.
Originally, Ledger was supposed to walk out of the Hospital only for it to explode immediately
behind him. However, the detonations were delayed and only one small explosion went off.
The building used for the scene had already been planned to be demolished and Nolan only had one chance to film the shot. Superbly, Ledger stayed fully in character, frantically poking and prodding at his detonator as the bombs exploded in random sequence behind him, allowing the scene which should have been a disaster to become one of the most iconic moments in modern film.

The Shining: “Here’s Johnny”
Considered one of director Stanley Kubrick’s best productions and one of the greatest horror/thriller movies of all time, The Shining boasts one of the most recognised moments in modern movie history.The line occurs during a scene where lead character Jack Torrance, now completely insane, is trying to murder his wife, who has locked herself in a bathroom for safety.
Originally, Kubrick, considered by some as quite the perfectionist, only wanted Jack Nicholson to break through a door with an axe, but what followed was to become most one the famous lines in film. As Nicholson breaks a hole in the door, he pokes his head through and says “Here’s Johnny”, in typical, maniac fashion. The line was taking from the late night TV show “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and was an imitation of Announcer Ed McMahon’s introduction. Based in England at the time, Kubrick later admitted he had never heard the line before but decided to use it anyway.

Taxi Driver: “You talkin’ to me?”
The script read “Travis speaks to himself in the mirror”, but what Robert De Niro said would be
declared as the tenth greatest movie quote of all time (the winner was “Frankly, my dear, I don’t
give a damn” and become the most memorable moment in Martin Scorsese’s classic Taxi Driver.

A young De Niro, about to showcase his talent, turns to the mirror and says “You talkin’ to me?”
What followed would be carved into Pop Culture history forever. Originally, the idea was thought to be an imitation of Marlon Brando. However, actor /musician Clarence Clemons, who played for Bruce Springsteen and had a role in Scorsese’s 1977 musical “New York, New York”, revealed that De Niro got his inspiration for the scene from The Boss himself.