“He ruined all my plans”: Christian Bale is unhappy with his performance in Batman – and Heath Ledger is to blame!
Christian Bale is considered by many to be one of the best Batmans. But, to this day, the actor is still not satisfied with his performance as the Dark Knight, and this is particularly the fault of Heath Ledger’s Joker…
A decade after the failure of Batman & Robin (1997), Christopher Nolan brought the franchise back to life with Batman Begins (2005), carried by Christian Bale.
For the first time, Oppenheimer’s director approached the hero’s story in a relatively dark, more serious and more realistic way – and in the eyes of many fans, he finally achieved perfection with The Dark Knight (2008).
The central part of the trilogy thus became an instant classic and received – rather unusually for a superhero film – eight Oscar nominations, becoming by far the most successful film of the year (and of the genre quite simply ?).
But one person is still not entirely satisfied with Nolan’s famous saga and that is Christian Bale as he announced, among others, in an interview with Yahoo.
I didn’t really manage to accomplish what I was hoping for through the trilogy. [Christopher Nolan] did it, but my own self-esteem tells me, ‘I didn’t quite make it.’ […] Heath came and completely ruined all my plans. I said to myself, ‘He’s way more interesting than me and what I do.’
For many fans and critics, it is true that the dazzling performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker was the highlight of The Dark Knightand that he has, in some way, eclipsed his partner.
The actor, who died before the premiere of the film at the age of only 28, rightfully received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor posthumously.
A ROLE THAT HOWEVER CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR CHRISTIAN BALE
Nevertheless, Christian Bale is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the trilogy, as he clarified in a conversation with Variety. “I have mixed feelings about this. I am always forever grateful to Chris. […] It changed everything.
It was the first time I had made a film of this magnitude. It was a real learning curve for me. I struggled with this for a long time. I still struggle on occasion. But I’m just learning to accept the good things.”
And finally, this also includes its collaboration with Heath Ledger : “He was a fantastic guy, we had a lot of fun on set”, he said in an interview with British GQ in 2012.
“He completely immersed himself in the film, but at the same time he was so easy to get along with. Heath was contagious. His death makes me angry because I know our friendship would have flourished if he hadn’t died. He made a truly defining characterization of the Joker that audiences and the industry will no doubt praise and then recognize over time.”
Today it is hard to imagine that many people thought that Heath Ledger was a particularly bad choice at the time. Find out why that was the case and how Christopher Nolan ultimately came out on top.
The first two parts of the trilogy can be found on Netflix. The third is, for its part, available on VOD on dedicated platforms.