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Heath Ledger's Haunting Joker Diary For The Dark Knight

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A journal that Heath Ledger kept while he was prepping for his now-iconic role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ has resurfaced online.

As part of a documentary called 'Heath Ledger: Too Young To Die’, Ledger’s father Kim looks through the book, which features ideas, scribbled notes and reference points for his take on Batman’s nemesis.

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There are pictures of Malcolm McDowell’s iconic Alex from 'A Clockwork Orange’, as well as clowns and hyenas, but hauntingly, he scrawled 'bye bye’ across a page of notes in signing off.

He died just a few months later in 2008, aged just 28.

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The video was uploaded online last year, but has now resurfaced after being posted on Reddit, fans of Ledger clearly still keen to see a snapshot into his life and career.

“He pretty well locked himself up in a hotel, in his apartment, for a month or so, to sort of galvanise the upcoming character in his own mind,” says Kim in the clip.

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“That was typical of Heath on any movie. He would certainly immerse himself in the upcoming character. But I think this was just a whole new level.

“This is a make-up test which was done eight months before. Before the end of the shooting he wrote 'bye bye’ on the back of the page. It was hard to see this.”

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“The hospital room [scene] was kind of intriguing because his sister Kate used to dress him up in a nurse’s outift,” Kim later adds.

“He looked pretty funny in a nurse’s outfit as a kid, and he looked pretty funny in a nurse’s outfit in the film.”

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Heath himself spoke about the process in an interview with Empire magazine prior to the film’s release.

“I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices - it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh.

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“I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath - someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts.

“He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, and Chris has given me free rein. Which is fun, because there are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke.”

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In the clip, Kim flicks through the book with Heath’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – awarded posthumously for his role as the Joker – seen sitting on the desk.

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The actor was found unresponsive at his apartment in New York in January 2008.

Image credits: Warner Bros/Broadview Pictures/YouTube/Variety