13 Intense Movie Performances That Are Incredibly Difficult To Watch

3. Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Despite how exceptional Ledger's performance as The Joker for Christopher Nolan was, and how incredibly entertaining the manner in which he burrowed beneath the skin of the audience and into the special vault of the most praised villain performances in Hollywood history, it is something else that makes the performance difficult to watch.

In the revelation of Ledger's untimely, tragic death at the start of 2008, the film scored a horrible, unwanted publicity boost for the actor's performance, when it was also revealed that suspicions suggested that it had played some part in affecting Ledger's mental state and lead directly to his death. The subsequent release of his Joker Diary, and set stories detailing his commitment to method further added to the sense that the performance was in some way responsible, and it was impossible to resist that ominous sense when watching the film for the first - and indeed subsequent - viewings.

It remains difficult to reconcile the admiration for the film, and for Ledger's performance with the dreaded knowledge that without it, he might still be alive, and that is truly a haunting revelation.