In newly released footage taken from a German documentary series, Too Young To Die, Heath Ledger’s father Kim heartbreakingly narrates a brief walk through of his son’s production diary, compiled during Heath’s posthumously acclaimed performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
Though sadly overdubbed in French [there’s a rough translation in the information section], Kim details his son’s immersive process in creating the character, which involved the latter locking himself in a hotel room for weeks creating said journal using images of Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange protagonist Alex DeLarge, hyenas and clowns; notes on The Joker’s masterful hospital scene, in which he dressed up as a nurse much like he used to when he was a child playing with his sister; and photographs from pre-production makeup tests.
It’s the latter which is perhaps the most upsetting for it being the only image included of his penultimate character, watched over by his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, while on the following page are scrawled in a large, hurried hand the words ‘BYE BYE.’
