Heath Ledger Death Anniversary: When Colin Farrell Was Inspired By Actor’s ‘Insane’ Performance For The Penguin

Heath Ledger Death Anniversary: It’s been 17 years since Heath Ledger’s untimely death from an accidental overdose in New York City. The actor had recently completed filming Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) and his performance as the Joker became the perfect foil to Christian Bale’s Batman. His performance was also awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2009.

Ledger was the first antagonist character to win a mainstream award for a comic book adaptation. In an interview, Colin Farrellwho plays the lead in the spinoff series The Penguinspoke about Ledger’s extraordinary performance and shared why it resonates so much even today.

Colin Farrell on Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight

Last year, after the finale of the HBO series The Penguin in December, The Batman (2022) actor was asked in a virtual question and answer session what he looked at as inspiration to give Oz Cobb, aka the Penguin, a new dimension in the show. Farrell cited Ledger’s performance.

Praising the late Oscar winner, Farrell revealed that he had recently rewatched The Dark Knight with his kids. He said, “Heath’s performance of the Joker is incomparable. He’s just extraordinary. It hasn’t aged a day. It’s just more magic every time you watch it. He’s so dangerous, he’s so insane and funny and charming, breath-taking in every little line… the details, every little nuance in Heath’s performance is just so beautiful.”

He added, “He commands your attention, but he doesn’t just take up the whole space, he allows all the other actors, Maggie [Gyllenhaal] and obviously Christian as Bruce Wayne, to have their space. He’s extraordinary in it. I just get inspired by it. I love films.”

After The Dark KnightLedger’s final film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was released in 2009. The documentary I Am Heath Ledger about his life was released in 2017.