Fan Forum - View Single Post - The Dark Knight Appreciation

wingster · 03-17-2008, 09:22 PM

i'm counting down till july 18...4 months left

ETA: Couple of interviews
Batman director: My responsibility to Heath Ledger | Batman | THE Q&A | Movies | Entertainment Weekly

Quote:

''I felt very lucky to have something to do,'' says director Christopher Nolan, when talking about the sudden death of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker in his upcoming Batman movie The Dark Knight (opening July 18). ''I felt an enormous amount of responsibility to him.''

For months now, Nolan has been working to finish his film — something that he says has allowed him to better cope with the abrupt loss of his friend and colleague. Movie-industry dignitaries who attended the annual ShoWest convention in Las Vegas last Thursday got an early glimpse at what the filmmaker has created. Nolan presented a brief scene from the beginning of the movie, in which a group of thieves rob a bank wearing Joker masks and unleashing a startling amount of carnage. It was enough to pique Bat-appetites, but, without any extended look at Ledger's performance, it didn't answer many lingering questions. So when EW.com caught up with Nolan later, we asked him how the tragedy affected the movie, as well as what's next for him and the Batman franchise.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where are you now in the post-production process on the film?
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: I just finished my first cut, showed it to the studio last Friday. It's pretty exciting, actually: It's always one of those pretty nervy occasions, and it was really kind of fun.

Have you had the opportunity to take a moment and grieve for Heath Ledger?
Not really.

Sometimes they say that being able to work through tragedy helps you deal with it.
For me, for my process, just working straight through it and wrestling through it and working was actually — I felt very lucky to have something to do. Because for most of the people who knew him far better than I did, who were around him, it was very difficult for his family and everyone. I was very fortunate: I had something very specific to be getting on with — I felt an enormous amount of responsibility to him. So I've really had something to be doing. You always feel a sort of responsibility to an actor that you've clicked with and seen him do something great for you on set. As a director, you can really screw that up in the end; there's no two ways about that. So [I've been focused on] just getting on with trying to preserve the great performance that I knew he had given us.

Have you had to change a lot or do much differently?
No, not at all. You know, he was very proud of what he had done. [His interpretation of the Joker is] very much a character, an iconic character, and very much not [Heath]. So to watch it is actually enthralling and captivating and exciting — all those positive things. I know how proud he was of the part and I'm actually very, very excited to show it to people and have them see it.

Quote:

Back to The Dark Knight: Can you talk a little bit about what it was like to work with Heath Ledger?
Yeah, I'm absolutely fine talking about him. You know, I don't like kind of trivializing the tragedy in conjunction with an interview to do with the movie, which is clearly far less important. But Heath was a joy. He really was like that, because he was a very unique man. I enjoyed watching him work, working with him — you know, we had a lot of the old gang from the first one together, and then there were new members, Heath obviously included. What was so great to see with Heath is just how seriously he took it. And we don't mean in any way to sound sort of pretentious with that, but just in the fact that if we don't take it seriously, then how can any audience ever take it seriously? And he did one hell of a job. You know, you were out there [at the Warner Bros. presentation earlier in the day] — you saw those clips?