English-American actor Andrew Garfield first turned heads with his breakout role in The Social Network, followed quickly by a 4-year stint as The Amazing Spider-Man in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot that successfully solidified Garfield’s status as a household name. But a recent podcast interview revealed Garfield’s fondness for a much earlier and far less popular project: Terry Gilliam’s 2009 fantastical film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which put Garfield face-to-face with the unforgettable Heath Ledger shortly after Ledger’s iconic stint as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Garfield recalled the brief yet memorable time he spent working alongside Ledger. His most prominent memory: Ledger’s smug insistence that The Dark Knight would be an instant hit, months before the film premiered in July 2008. Fresh from portraying one of the most memorable movie villains of all time, Ledger told Garfield that he knew the film was “really good” — only to be posthumously proven right, with The Dark Knight setting numerous box office records alongside an abundance of other accolades.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWvTY_iD3k
Garfield also spoke about the personal and professional impact that his time with Ledger left behind. On Ledger’s phenomenal skills as an actor and artist, Garfield said, “He was so free and so wild and so, kind of dangerous on set in a way that was the kind of thing that is inspiring and spontaneous. He would say before every take, or one take every scene, ‘Let’s have some fun with this one.'” But on their relationship as colleagues, Garfield shared an anecdote revealing Ledger’s heart and personality.
I remember the first day I met him he was wearing these amazing camo Ray Ban sunglasses and I just said, ‘Oh hey, cool sunglasses,’ And the next day they were like in my dressing room, he had just left them for me. He was just a very generous, beautiful, creative spirit.
Garfield still has the sunglasses — one of many legacies from the late, great Heath Ledger.
The Man Behind the Makeup
Ledger’s tragic and untimely passing is a moment that Hollywood will never forget. Shortly after filming The Dark Knight, Ledger’s life was cut short due to an accidental overdose in January 2008, and it’s safe to say that fans have never really recovered. Although most prominently known as the Clown Prince of Crime, Ledger took on a wide variety of roles, truly demonstrating his artistic prowess by jumping effortlessly from rom-com projects like 10 Things I Hate About You to action-adventure epics like A Knight’s Tale.
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His impact on the DC universe can’t be understated, however. Ledger’s performance as the Joker is almost unanimously regarded as the greatest in a long line of Batman adaptations and reboots, earning him a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Despite never witnessing the love audiences showed for his role, Ledger himself seemed to know that the performance was an incredible one, stating that he’d had an amazing time working on the film and was proud of what he had accomplished. It’s no wonder, then, that Garfield fondly recalls his brief but impactful time with Ledger, well over a decade later.