Adrien Brody garnered widespread acclaim and the Academy Award for Best Actor for essaying the role of Władysław Szpilman in the 2002 film The Pianist. Since then, he has worked on diverse projects, but never in a superhero feature or series. Brody is once more earning accolades for playing Holocaust survivor László Tóth in the 2024 period drama The Brutalist. In a recent interview, Brody reflected on once being in consideration to play the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Adrien Brody reflects on talking to Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight’s Joker
Brody reflected on his interactions with filmmaker Christopher Nolan while he was in talks to play the Joker in the 2008 superhero feature The Dark Knight in a new interview with Josh Horowitz of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Heath Ledger ultimately secured the role. He passed away a few months before the movie’s release. Ledger was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and several other accolades for his performance.
When asked if he already had an interpretation of the Joker prepared, Brody made it clear to Horowitz that he “wasn’t close” to landing the role of the Joker. He added, “It was a role that I felt very suited to do. Heath did such a remarkable job in that movie. It was indelible. Such beautiful work.”
The Asteroid City actor continued, “Any actor who has a degree of edge would like to delve into a dark character like that, especially with a filmmaker like Christopher Nolan who brought such a profound vision. And nobody was doing that at the time. There was nothing like that.”
Brody further praised Nolan by noting that what the filmmaker offered to the actors in the movie “was a revelation” and “mindblowing.” He elaborated, “That would have been such a dream role, and I’m sure it was for Heath.”
On the prospect of working on a comic book project in the future, Brody expressed interest. “If I was presented with an opportunity to play an interesting character with a filmmaker that elevated me and gave me space to do something vastly different. In that world, it sounds amazing,” he said.
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.
