Today is the 10th anniversary of The Dark Knight and to celebrate, The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Michael Jai White about working on the movie, including his popular scene with Heath Ledger’s Joker.
As you recall, White played Gambol, a gangster that put a bounty on The Joker’s head. In the movie, we’re lead to believe that The Joker kills Gambol but according to White that wasn’t supposed to happen. In fact, he says he shot additional footage that was cut out.
“It was the kind of thing where they had deeper intentions for Gambol; it was a character who was written for future use, I think,” White said. “There were other plans to do stuff with that character and some things that were cut out. I think it’s because of unfortunately losing Heath Ledger.”
“I think that people can tell by the strange cut that I never shot a death scene,” White explained. “The character wasn’t supposed to be gone. That is something that happened in editing later.”
“You don’t see mistakes in a movie of that magnitude. When you see something that is somewhat a mistake or is not clarified, there is something behind that,” he added.
White went on to say that he didn’t know his character died until he saw the movie at the premiere.
“Being that I have been on both sides of the camera, I understood,” White admitted. “I was as surprised as anybody. The next few moments after Gambol hit the ground, I was in a state of confusion, like ‘What the hell happened? I guess I am not coming back.’ But, I have a producer’s and director’s mind-set, so I was able to look at it and think, ‘I guess they must have wanted to go this way.'”
Head on over to The Hollywood Reporter for more from White, including what it was like working with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight.
What do you make of White’s comments that Gambol wasn’t supposed to die in The Dark Knight? Let me know below.
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
