To think of any other actor other than Heath Ledger playing Joker in The Dark Knight might be next to impossible today. The way the late actor got into the skin and made it his own has become a reference point for Hollywood. But, what if we tell you he wasn’t the first actor to get the offer of playing the DC villain?
The 2008 Christopher Nolan classic was initially meant to star Joaquin Phoenix! Though the actor got to play Joker in 2019. But, he was first offered the role a decade ago.
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Joaquin Phoenix was Christopher Nolan's first choice
The 50-year-old revealed it himself in an interview with Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin. Despite Nolan’s hot offer, Joaquin didn’t sign up, and there was a reason.
"I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight and that didn’t happen for whatever reason. I wasn’t ready then. That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s not doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else. There’s another person who is going to do something… I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?" Joaquin said.
"I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person.’ I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know we met. My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s not the guy,'" he added.
Heath Ledger as Joker
There is no denying that Heath Ledger eventually owned up the crazy character, with dozens of behind-the-scenes stories from the award-winning movie that reveal how he breathed throught the character soaking himself up in not just his mannerisims but also his mental psyche.
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10 years later, Joaquin Phoenix did agree to play the role in its franchise reboot Joker that released in 2019. The movie was a runaway hit too, making way for its sequel Joker: Folie à Deux that released on October 2 this year, and also starred Lady Gaga as Harley Queen.
Interestingly, both The Dark Knight (2008) and Joker (2019) got Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix their first Oscar awards.