8 Little Known Tics In Heath Ledger's Performance That Made Nolan's Joker Awesome
7. He Purposely Made It Different From Jack Nicholson's
It seems odd to think it now, pre-The Dark Knight everyone thought Jack Nicholson had done the definitive, untoppable Joker performance in Tim Burtons Batman. Heath Ledgers casting may have got a general dislike from the public because of his previous work, but for Bat fans the real problem was the futility of going up against what Jack did.
That all seems a bit silly now doesn't it? Given how different the films are in tone people dont really compare The Dark Knight to Batman any more. A key proponent of that was how drastically different the two antagonists were. And it wasn't by any means a happy accident; when creating the character Ledger purposefully ignored the defining performance. Sure, he wouldn't have lifted anything directly, but this way there was no chance of any connections.
Now the only people who say Nicholson is still king are the same people who delude themselves into thinking the Burton movies come close to Nolan's (come at me cine-hipsters).