The Joker: Was Heath Ledger Imitating Tom Waits? Costume Inspired By Beetlejuice?
July 30, 2012 by Hollywoodite
Many will be re-watching 2008′s The Dark Knight in anticipation of finally watching The Dark Knight Rises its second week. And those who will be watching TDK again may have some questions about its standout, The Joker, for which late actor Heath Ledger won a posthumous 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
For months now, people have been sharing the factoid that Ledger’s Joker was “inspired” by musician Tom Waits. Moreover, this information is being shared over and over on boards like Reddit.com by people claiming to know as fact that’s where Ledger drew inspiration despite it seeming apparent there’s no source to support this claim. Instead, people are pointing to a 1979 interview of Waits in which the voice and mannerisms match. But there’s still no credible quote linking the artist to TDK. Just conjecture. For what it’s worth, here’s the video that’s being shared today despite these claims bandying around for months and months.
To clarify, the film’s IMDb trivia page doesn’t mention Waits but instead says: “Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker’s appearance was primarily based on the chaotic, disheveled look of punk rocker Sid Vicious combined with the psychotic mannerisms of Malcolm McDowell’s character, Alex De Large, from A Clockwork Orange.” Wikipedia expounds: To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker’s thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he “really tried to read and put it down.” Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as “a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether. There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent. There are a few more surprises to him.”
A related piece of trivia, in The Joker’s arrest scene in which Gotham police go through the criminal’s pockets and newly-appointed Commissioner Gordon comments there’s “Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint,” yes, that’s a potato peeler along with the knives. Apparently, “It was Heath Ledger’s idea for there to be a potato peeler in the Joker’s possession when he was arrested. He felt it would be suitably gruesome.”
As something of a non sequitur, people may also be wondering whether Ledger’s 2008 Joker costume was inspired by Tim Burton’s 1988 movie Beetlejuice with the titular character played by Michael Keaton. Again, no, there are no quotes to support this. It appears to be coincidence: wild green/ yellow hair, white make-up around the face with black make-up around eyes, and a purple suit jacket (in certain scenes) under which a smart shirt is worn.
