Heath Ledger's career-defining Joker performance is even better when you see the script

It’s difficult to add anything more to the conversation about Heath Ledger’s sensational turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight. 

The late actor took the sociopathic comic book villain and turned him into something more menacing and sadistic than any portrayal we’d seen before. The performance garnered him a host of awards, and when people say the second movie in Christopher Nolan's trilogy transcended the superhero genre, a large part of that owes to Ledger’s unforgettable Joker. 

It is, then, never a chore to go back and re-watch some of the film’s most iconic moments. In a new video uploaded to Legendary’s YouTube channel, the scene where The Joker gatecrashes Bruce Wayne’s exclusive penthouse party has been coupled with its original script. So when Batman’s nemesis grabs Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and holds his blade directly to her mouth, we can see exactly how Ledger and his co-star interpreted each line and direction they were given in real-time. That monologue about how he came to acquire his scars has lost none of its dramatic impact over the years.