It’s well-known Heath Ledger was obsessed with his Joker character in The Dark Knight, but creepy new details now reveal just HOW FAR he really went with that obsession.
Apparently when Ledger was discovered dead of a drug overdose in his fourth-floor loft in Manhattan, his apartment had been turned completely into a shrine to The Joker.
Police investigators report that they found the place filled with Batman comic books, literature on the Joker and clowns, clown statues and strange recordings of Ledger practicing his Joker voice.
Reports Page Six…
“He was studying up on the origins of clowns and all of the previous Jokers like Jack Nicholson’s character and Cesar Romero’s, who was the first Joker on TV,” the source said.
“He was trying to make his role different from the roles of the other actors. He was even studying how to make his voice different from theirs,” the source added.
Ledger also apparently kept a journal as a part of his preparation for the award-winning role.
Ledger’s red-and-blue, bound journal with “The Joker” emblazoned on the front was composed of ominous photos, comic strips and drawings of the movie villain, clowns and hyenas. There was also a picture of Malcolm McDowell playing the brutish character Alex DeLarge in “A Clockwork Orange.”
On the back of one of the pages, Ledger made a disturbing notation, scrawling the words, “bye bye.”
Creepy.
In an interview given to Empire magazine prior to his death Ledger explained how his version of The Joker came to be…
“I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh,” he said.
“I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts,” Ledger said. “He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown … Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke.”
What is it with playing The Joker that turns actors into oddball maniacs?
All of this does make me wonder, if he were alive today, what Heath Ledger would think about all of these idiot “killer clowns” running around freaking people out. I bet his take on it would have been pretty good.
[Page Six]