Was Christian Bale’s Batman Ruined by Heath Ledger?

One of the most pivotal villain roles of all time was arguable Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. It was a role that landed him the first Oscar for a superhero film, and ultimately was instrumental in leading to his death. Did Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Batman’s biggest nemesis, the Joker, ruin Christian Bale’s plans for Batman?

The Dark Knight is revered as the best film in the Chris Nolan Batman trilogy, with Bale and Ledger’s characters shining on-screen as the world burns around them. According to Christian Bale, Ledger’s performance hindered his ability to fully realize what he wanted to do with Batman. Out doing publicity for The Knight of Cups,  Bale’s new film, he showed some regrets about how he portrayed the Caped Crusader in the Nolan trilogy. He even went as far to say that he “could have been a better Batman”, according to the Guardian.

In an interview for Yahoo Movies, Christian Bale said that he didn’t get to capture how messed up that he felt Bruce Wayne really was. Bale has gone on record a few times to stress that he wasn’t completely done with the Caped Crusader, and that he is a bit jealous of Ben Affleck’s Batman in the upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice due to hit theaters later this month.

While out on publicity for his latest movie, The Knight of Cups, Christian Bale has expressed some second thoughts about his portrayal of Bruce Wayne for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

“Batman, he’s this very very dark, messed up character. I found when I put on the suit, I feel like a bloody idiot if I don’t use this as a means of his true, monstrous self that he allows to come out in that moment.”

Ledger was brilliant in his role as the Joker, but that is not knocking Christian Bale’s performance. He captured the internal conflict that Batman/Bruce Wayne deals with.

Reports coming out of the screenings for Dawn of Justice are praising the way that Ben Affleck tackles the Dark Knight. We will just need to wait to see how the world embraces him as well, so Bale has every right to be jealous. I think that the thing to remember is that the Nolan trilogy is almost set in a different universe from the new DC films. I think that we will see that they are two completely different characters.

Would Bale be open to reprising his role as the Dark Knight? He goes on to say “Enough’s enough – we did our thing”. What a shame. I thought that making Bruce Wayne older in The Dark Knight Rises was a missed step, and would have like to see Bale crack skulls as a younger Batman one more time.

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