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Case in point: the pencil trick.
At one point, he says hell perform a magic trick by making a pencil disappear.
He sticks a pencil into a table, point first.
But how did this deeply memorable, nanoseconds-long sequence come together?
There are always loads of meetings and people wanting to do prosthetic stuff.
Ryan:There was talk of it being a CGI pencil.
Would the whole thing be a visual-effects gag?
Its not particularly difficult to build a CG pencil and track it in and kinda make it disappear out.
But we shot it in IMAX, so you see it on a giant, great, big canvas.
Wally Pfister (cinematographer):There was no trick pencil.
There was no pencil when his head hit the table so there is no place its disappearing into.
There was nothing there when his head hits the table.
Then the edit does its magic.
The previous film Chris [Nolan] and I did wasThe Prestige.
We spent like a year on thisPrestigething learning magic tricks and how you do tricks of camera.
It was a little hairy, because the pencils stuck in the table.
Well, possibly through a Ouija board.
We did something like 22 takes over two days.
We had two different tables.
Now, that was supposed to make it easier for the impact.
Whereas the galvanized rubber table, because of its density, there was less give.
It kind of felt like putting a towel over a brick wall, and running into it.
Not that Ive done that many times, but I can just use my imagination.
Id not seen the makeup before until he stepped out to do the first take.
He did this [stunt], and my immediate reaction was, Oh, God.
Youre not doing that, are you?
And then Im like, Oh, yeah.
He is doing that.
And its fucking brilliant.
Jarman:As we set the scene up, Heath Ledger was never in the room.
I think it was part of his method acting.
He would enter the room when he was being the Joker.
He would leave the room being the Joker.
He was the consummate professional, stayed in character all the time.
He only broke character once, which was when he first hit my head, and knocked me out.
Eric Roberts (actor, Sal Maroni):I had a physical reaction.
But it was so cool to see it work because itdidwork.
And it was nasty.
It was freaking nasty.
Jarman:[I had] three [knockouts] that I can recount.
Because it was the first time, I didnt want to mess the shot up.
Heath actually asked me when I was coming to, saying, Are you okay?
I was like, Yeah, yeah, Im good.
Then he slipped back into The Joker again.
Ryan:Heath was delivering great stuff.
Jarman:You think less of yourself and more about the shot.
You suck it up, and you go again.
As Ive got older, Ive realized I wouldnt be doing it in the same way now.
The room is full of all of your idols, you dont want to mess things up.
There are a lot of people relying on it.
If I do it properly, if I do it right, then the shot can move on.
You want people to be happy with what youve done, your performance.
So, you focus on that.
Ryan:Charles is a lovely man and he did exactly what was needed to make it work.
Given all the parameters, I believe we got there.
Theres no avoiding the impact how its set up, its going to happen.
You just do it differently.
Pfister:Its kind of shocking thatThe Dark Knightended up being PG-13.
All of Chriss movies would be PG-13 to open it up to a wider audience.
Somehow, he always had some magic with the MPAA.
Theres no way this is going in.
Hes driving this pencil through a guys head!
And I was wrong.
Chris was always right, whether you liked it or not.
Youd be like, Fuck you, you were right again.
