Actor Andrew Garfield had the opportunity to work with Heath Ledger before his unfortunate death. During their brief time together, Garfield learned lessons from Ledger that continued to help the Spider-Man star in the subsequent years.
What Andrew Garfield learned from Heath Ledger before portraying Spider-Man
Ledger and Garfield somewhat crossed paths in the 2009 film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was Ledger’s last film before his death. The film also featured stars such as Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law filling in for Ledger’s role afterwards.
Before Parnassus, Ledger had already made his mark on the superhero genre playing the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Garfield didn’t get a chance to speak to Ledger about his turn as the Joker while filming. But The Social Network star was aware of Ledger’s enthusiasm for the role.
“The movie wasn’t out, but I knew how excited he was. I was talking to his friends about it, who had been involved in the process, and they were so jazzed about how people were going to react to him,” Garfield once told MTV News.
In hindsight, Garfield was able to learn things from Ledger that he’d later apply to his own superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man. Despite the fact that Ledger’s and Garfield’s superhero characters couldn’t have been any more different.
“What I learned from watching him in that movie was that it was so honest and specific. Somehow he made this very broad character incredibly honest and human,” Garfield said. “There’s so much to be learned from that, because otherwise during the big fight sequences, who cares, unless you have a good understanding of who the characters fighting are?”
Andrew Garfield remembered Heath Ledger as a gift to the world
Years after his death, Garfield was one of the many lives that Ledger left an unforgettable impression on.
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“The amount of stuff he left me with was astonishing. I will never ever lose hold of what he had to offer. He just had this total spontaneity and the ability to do anything at any point: fly off the handle or joke,” Garfield said in a 2008 interview with Vulture. “It was electrifying and I never knew what he was going to do — like punch me, you know? But how he did it is a mystery to me.”
Apart from his abilities as a performer, Garfield was also mesmerized by the person that Ledger was as a whole. So he was particularly impacted by the Oscar-winner‘s death, especially with Ledger dying at the age of 28.
“When anyone dies, we want the beauty of keeping their memory alive by talking about them and by repeating stories over and over again,” Garfield said in a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair. “I think especially with someone who died so young — I remember feeling it with Heath.”
Andrew Garfield reveals he’d never play the Joker because of Heath Ledger
After his appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, audiences haven’t seen Garfield return to the comic book movie genre since. With his turn as Spider-Man coming to a hypothetical end for now, some have wondered how Garfield might tackle other comic book characters.
The actor did a segment with GQ not too long ago where he answered some of his fans’ questions over the internet. One fan proposed the idea of Garfield playing a new Joker for Robert Pattinson’s The Batman film. But Garfield shared it wasn’t a role he was willing to tackle, partially because of what Ledger and others did with the character.
“No, no way,” Garfield told the fan. “I wouldn’t go near it. Sweet of you to think that it’s possible. But I don’t think I could ever do it because of what Heath did, what Jack Nicholson did. And, but then, of course, Joaquin did his own genius thing.”
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