Batman The Dark Knight : Christopher Nolan se souvient de Heath Ledger
Christopher Nolan, l’homme qui a été capable de relancer la franchise Batman avec Batman Begins et sa suite The Dark Knight, a récemment écrit pour Newsweek ce qu’il ressentait à propos de la perte de Heath Ledger, son Joker dans The Dark Knight. Dans sa lettre, Nolan explique combien Ledger se passionnait pour l’industrie du cinéma et pour ses rôles. Sa passion se propageait comme un virus et poussait toute l’équipe à travailler encore plus dur.
« Heath regorgeait de créativité, » écrit Nolan. « Cela transpirait dans chacun de ses gestes. Il m’a dit un jour qu’il aimait attendre entre deux boulots pour laisser monter l’envie de créativité, jusqu’à ce que ça devienne un besoin. C’est cette attitude qu’il avait avec lui sur le plateau tous les jours. Il y a peu d’acteurs qui vous font culpabiliser lorsque vous vous plaignez alors que vous faites le plus beau métier du monde, Heath était l’un d’eux. »
Lors d’une scène très complexe pour The Dark Knight, Legder a finalement trouvé exactement ce dont il avait besoin pour rendre son personnage parfait pour la scène. Mais c’était l’heure d’arrêter et l’équipe avait encore toute la journée suivante pour travailler sur cette même scène. Ledger a toutefois eu peur de ne pas être capable d’être à la hauteur le lendemain, il a demandé à toute l’équipe déjà exténuée par sa journée de rester encore un peu pour tourner cette scène de la bonne manière.
« Tout le monde a compris que Heath avait trouvé quelque chose de spécial qui avait besoin d’être mis en boite tout de suite avant que cela ne disparaisse, » explique Nolan. « Beaucoup plus tard, j’ai appris que lorsque Heath a quitté le plateau ce soir là, il était extrêmement tard mais il a tenu a remercier chaque membre de l’équipe personnellement pour avoir travaillé si tard. Sans vouloir donner d’explications, mais juste pour les remercier de l’avoir laissé exprimer sa créativité. »
Le plus dur concernant le tournage de The Dark Knight était de choisir ce que Ledger ferait ou ne ferait pas. Et ensuite comment le lui justifier lors de la présentation du produit final.
« J’imagine ce que pourrait être le visionnage du film que nous aurions fait avec lui, quelques rangées derrière lui pour étudier ses mouvements de tête pour ainsi découvrir des indices sur ce qu’il penserait de ce que nous avions fait avec sa performance. Maintenant cette projection avec lui n’aura jamais lieu. Je le vois tous les jours dans la salle de montage et il me manque énormément. »
La lettre en intégralité comme elle a été publiée sur le site de Newsweek :
Charisma as Natural as Gravity
NEWSWEEK
Updated : 3:21 PM ET Jan 26, 2008
Heath Ledger, 28, Actor
Best known for his haunting, Oscar-nominated performance as Ennis Del Mar, one of the gay cowboys in 2005 ’ s "Brokeback Mountain," Ledger was a massive young talent on the cusp of greatness when he died last week in New York. The native Australian, who is survived by his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, had recently finished work on this summer’s "Batman" sequel, "The Dark Knight," in which he plays a villain, the Joker. Christopher Nolan, the film’s director, shared these memories :
One night, as I’m standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I’d fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you’d asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn’t know. That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.
Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.
One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they’d really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It’s tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there’s plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they’d given him.
Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress : short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.
When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.
Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it’s Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can’t help but smile.
URL : http://www.newsweek.com/id/105580
© Newsweek Mag
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