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Ledger could earn a posthumous Oscar nod

By Times wires
In print: Thursday, July 17, 2008

Heath Ledger turns in a remarkable performance as the Joker in the Batman movie The Dark Knight. The buzz is that the late actor will be nominated for an Oscar - and may win.
	[Warner Bros.]

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Compiled from Times wires

LOS ANGELES

Jack Nicholson's Joker was a blast. Heath Ledger's Joker is as dark and anarchic a figure as Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the role that brought Nicholson his first Academy Award.

Ledger's performance in the Batman tale The Dark Knight is so remarkable that on Jan. 22, the one-year anniversary of his death, he could become just the seventh actor in Oscar history to earn a posthumous nomination.

"I do think that Heath has created an iconic villain that will stand for the ages, and of course, I would love to see him get an award," said Christian Bale, who plays Batman. "But you know, to me, you can witness his talent, celebrate his talent within this movie. Anything else is gravy."

Superhero flicks usually are not the stuff Oscar dreams are made of. Yet Ledger delivered so far beyond anyone's expectations, "He may even win the damn thing," said Gary Oldman, who co-stars as noble cop Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight.

As filming of The Dark Knight progressed last year, word began leaking from the set about the feverishly psychotic persona Ledger was creating.

"Whatever Heath channeled into, he's found something quite extraordinary," Oldman said. "It's arguably one of the greatest screen villains I think I've ever seen."

Added Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes, "I knew him some before we did the movie together (her brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, co-starred with Ledger in Brokeback Mountain). Heath hit a stride that was absolutely free, which is rare for an actor. The scene I did with him was very scary and full of tension and horrible in a lot of ways. But I actually had such a blast shooting it with him because anything I did, he would roll with me and he threw all sorts of things at me."

Fans were hooked, but some were skeptical when Oscar buzz for the performance started circulating after Ledger's death at age 28 from an accidental drug overdose. Skepticism dissolved once Warner Bros. began screenings for The Dark Knight.

"Heath Ledger didn't so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role," filmmaker and lifelong comics fan Kevin Smith said on his MySpace blog. "I know I'm not the first to suggest this, but he'll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for best supporting actor."

Ledger's performance is surpassing even the sky-high expectations hard-core fans have going in.

"He was better than I thought he was going to be," said Bill Ramey, founder of the fan Web site Batman-on-Film.com. "I think he legitimately would deserve an Oscar nomination, not just out of sympathy to his passing, but because he was just fantastic in the movie. . . . It's right up there with Hannibal Lecter," which earned Anthony Hopkins an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs.

Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are profuse in their praise of Ledger but have been diplomatic about the Oscar talk. The studio has cautiously avoided any appearance of profiting from the added attention Ledger's death has brought to the film.

Director Christopher Nolan sidestepped the Oscar question, saying that he was simply happy that early viewers were responding to the performance the way Ledger would have liked.

"Working with Heath was absolutely marvelous. I think it's a real testament to his extraordinary ability that, when people see this film, they are so struck by the monstrous nature of this character.

"But anybody who knew him knew that he was utterly the opposite to that. I've worked for a long time with the performance, putting it together. It's very gratifying to me, at this point, to see that people are receiving it very much the way he intended it to come across," Nolan said. "That makes me feel like I've done right by him, because it's very easy for a director to mess up a great performance."