Christian Bale Calls Working with Heath Ledger "Intense"

For a lot of people, the first 10 weeks of the summer movie season are all filler until The Dark Knight is released. It looks like a simply terrific sequel, and all the talk that immediately followed the casting of Heath Ledger as The Joker went away instantly once the first trailer went public, and now there's so much anticipation for not only his performance but also the film in general, that it's kind of hard not to keep bringing it up. It's the other shoe, and we're all kind of waiting for it to drop. Christian Bale recently spoke to Details about working with Ledger, who, based on the little we've seen absolutely reinvents one of the world's all-time great villains of literature. Gone are the Nicholosonian sense of humor and the rather flimsy Cesar Romero embodiment of evil. Heath Ledger appears to be an absolute misanthrope in this role. "He was incredibly intense in his performance but incredibly mellow and laid-back," remembers Bale of Ledger. "Certainly there was this great anarchistic streak to it - just getting dirtier than anybody’s envisioned the Joker before. This character has power because he has no limits - absolutely nothing to lose." As we know, The Dark Knight arrives on July 18th, which is too long to wait, frankly. Between now and then, we'll probably see plenty of clips and read a lot more interviews about the film and Ledger. And just to keep you up-to-date with all the latest marketing imagery, check out these British banners for the film, courtesy of IMP Awards.