15 Rare On-set photos of Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

I had read an interview  somewhere where Heath Ledger said he went to Jack Nicholson for advice on the Joker role, in that meeting Nicholson said that the best advice he could give him was not to get eaten by the role, that it was a powerful character and he could easily fall into its trap and get stuck in it, just like, supposedly, Jack himself almost did. Now, if anyone believes that that was what consumed and eventually killed Ledger is very much up for debate, but there's no denying that ledger was REALLY into his character.

Prior to production, Ledger locked himself in his hotel room for a month preparing for the role. During this stint of almost six weeks he wrote in a journal and practiced different voices for his character. In this creepy Journal, written during his time of isolation, there were in-character ramblings and inspirations. He also included photographs of hyenas, clown make-up designs, joker cards and even stills from A Clockwork Orange, which is a movie Nolan recommended Ledger watch to prepare for the Joker. Some of the writing contained in the journal was from the perspective of the Joker, including a list of suspicious things he thought were funny like AIDS, blind babies, landmines and smart people that suffer from brain damage (don't ask). On the cover, the words THE JOKER, with the picture of an elephant and a man on a checkered floor. The last page of the journal had the words “BYE BYE” handwritten in large letters.


Back in 2008 I wrote this about the movie and Ledger's performance:

"If you haven't heard of Christopher Nolan's soon-to-be classic "The Dark Knight" then you don't live on this planet or are completely oblivious to what's going on in pop culture. Nolan along with an A-list cast headlined by Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as the Joker make sure to to haunt your dreams with this movie. Many have evoked the film as a post-9/11 depiction of a world gone to hell. They might not be far off. Bale's caped crusader needs to lower himself to the depths of evil in order to make good triumph. As for Ledger's Joker, he feels so real and intense that you feel uncomfortable whenever he appears on-screen. It's one of the great movie performances of our time."


Here are 15 rare pictures of Ledger on the set of  "The Dark Knight."

[The Chive]
[Den of Geek]

Elizabeth Taylor's legacy & the personal connection I have with the Legend herself

It's funny how only when someone dies do you truly appreciate the work they had done over their long, illustrious career. Elizabeth Taylor died yesterday morning at the age of 79. I knew all about her and the legend she had created through my grandmother who had been a Taylor fan since watching Cleopatra more than 47 years ago in a movie theatre. Not only was she a fan but she would always mention how people thought she looked like Taylor. I saw it too in old pictures and even as we speak she looks like older taylor. My grandmother not only looked like her in the pictures I had seen that dated way back to the 40's and 50's but she acted like her too. Taylor was a tough cookie that took nothing from nobody. She stood her ground and helped raise awareness for causes that caught her heart, most importantly the millions she donated to AIDS charities. She had gay friends that impacted her greatly, most notably Rock Hudson who died of AIDS himself in the 80's.

My grandmother -behind all the madness I see in her and the ferocious, sometimes abnormally tough character she might have- has a heart of gold that translates into giving to others and caring too much to bear. She's always talked to me about Taylor's eyes, the purple that laid in them and the rarity that came with having such awestruck beautiful eyes. She'd talk about watching Cleopatra and other films of hers. I have never been a big fan of the film myself and you won't find many film connoisseurs warming up to it either, it was a colossal flop in its day but something about it grabbed many mainstream film goers into its lovingly grandiose design -Grandma included. Everything that made Taylor a superstar was in the film, her looks were to die for and the overall grandiosity of her character on screen made for a larger than life portrayal of a biblical figure.

She was seen more as a superstar than as an actual actress by my Grandmother and that's in fact what many loved most about Taylor. The royalty that came with her and the men that went down to their knees begging to marry her (8 marriages in fact). Behind all that was an actress and not more an example than in Who Killed Virginia Woolfe? which rightfully won her an Oscar in 1967. A brave performance in which Taylor de-glammed herself and became the opposite of what Grandma envisioned of her. In the thick of things Taylor had beauty but she also had heart on screen, almost everybody will admit she had her duds but you couldn't deny the presence on screen or the formidable impact she had on Hollywood. When I got the news she died yesterday morning my heart floundered, I thought of my Grandmother and how she would take the news. A woman she had looked up to for decades was gone but in typical fashion it was as if nothing happened. Her reaction was like any other, she was sad but was more concerned with the daily trials that were happening in her own life. Elizabeth Taylor would have acted the same way.