The Dark Knight Trilogy: 18 Cool Behind-The-Scenes Details You Didn't Know

2. The Joker's Shoes Were The First Costume Element To Be Chosen

The Dark Knight Heath Ledger Joker costume
Warner Bros. Pictures

Once Ledger signed on to play the Joker, it was time to devise the character's look.

Obviously, the costume and makeup departments (along with the director) are the two main creative forces during this process, but The Dark Knight is a rare case in that the actor was also heavily involved.

Nolan didn't want to just stick Ledger in a Joker costume and hope that it worked, and so, the young Aussie actually helped to develop the look and feel of the Joker - from his clothes to his shoes to his makeup - with costume designer Lindy Hemming, makeup artist John Caglione, and Nolan himself.

According to Nolan, the Joker's shoes were the first thing that Hemming and Ledger decided upon, with Ledger finding them to be "exactly right".

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!