“Heath was exhilarated by playing the Joker. He said, “I’m able to do things I never believed were inside me.” He’s working with great actors, like Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart, and he’d say, “I go into these scenes, and they can’t do anything to me!” He used to just giggle that he had found a character that was impregnable. They could beat him, hit him, and it wouldn’t make a difference because he was so utterly wacko. It freed him up and got him out of that uncertainty after Brokeback. It was just, “Let’s go. Let’s fly.” And he flew.” — Terry Gilliam, director

“I showed Heath the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, the bank heist sequence, on an IMAX screen in London. I said, “You have to see this. You haven’t seen yourself be the Joker!” He watched it, and it just blew his mind. He was so thrilled, he was just laughing. He said, “I want to see it again!” It’s not an easy thing to rethread an IMAX, so it took about 15 minutes, but we showed it to him again. That was the last time I saw him.” — Charles Roven, producer