This is exactly what I was talking about, this whole “cursed role” thing surrounding The Joker, all of it stemming from Heath’s death. I see posts like this every day in the Heath tag and there’s a few things I’d like to get off my chest.
Heath writing the infamous Joker journal is a prime example of method acting, nothing more, nothing less. In an interview not too long before Heath’s death, he told Empire magazine “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.” It wasn’t about him being consumed by the role, it was more about him establishing his own interpretation of an already established and iconic character. Heath isn’t the only actor to utilize method acting in order to submerse himself into a role. No one questioned Daniel Day-Lewis’s mental stability after living as Abraham Lincoln for the entire duration of filming or insisting on only eating meat he killed himself for Last of the Mohicans.
People like to use what Jack Nicholson said to a paparazzi as a credible source. He said it in passing and probably facetiously. If he was really serious, would he have laughed about it? And just as an aside, why the hell would Heath go to Nicholson for advice about the role anyway? He never once stated that Nicholson was an inspiration for the role in any way. If anything, he’d want to distance himself from an already established portrayal of The Joker.
Everybody forgets Heath went on to do The Imaginarium of Doctor Panassus after The Dark Knight. Filming for The Dark Knight had been completed months before his death and he was already on to other roles and bigger opportunities. He wasn’t stuck on the character, he had moved on.
The Joker role didn’t drive Heath crazy. It seems reductive to say what happened to Heath happened because of the character. What happened was an unfortunate accident, not the result of being tormented by this so called “insanity” after portraying The Joker. The medications Heath was taking were for conditions that had been around long before he was The Joker and for illnesses after the role. It sucks that he is plagued with “suicide” over his name just because it’s more fitting to the media. The media is pushing the idea of this cursed role as a selling point. This is obviously a publicity stunt released to get everyone worked up about how “dark” Leto’s Joker is going to be. It’s tasteless how people are comparing this to Heath’s death when they are not related. I can’t believe people continue to perpetuate this myth over the real explanation. The treatment towards Leto’s portrayal would not be happening without the Heath “cautionary tale” bullshit preceding it.
Jared Leto is not being haunted by this role, he’s just being an asshole.
