Q&A With Nolan and Bale, Part 2
Author: John Hoving
Sunday, July 20, 2008
EDITOR'S NOTE: On July 15, 2008, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale took part in a Q&A event sponsored by THE NEW YORK TIMES. BOF contributor John Hoving was there and the following is his report. - Jett
Nolan said he grew up enjoying big Hollywood movies such as STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, and James Bond -- specifically mentioning THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. He has powerful memories of what movies can do, bringing you into another world. They speak to a large field of people. He felt large scale Hollywood blockbusters are a very effective use of cinema when they are well done. He had not seen this happening in a long time and doing a film like BATMAN BEGINS and being able to draw from his memories of how really great films were made really appealed to him.
The topic turned to Nolan’s minimal use of CGI in THE DARK KNIGHT. Ms. James was astonished to learn that the flipping of the semi in one of the trailers was a stunt that actually took place on the streets of Chicago.
Nolan reiterated his preference to shoot as much as possible on camera using special effects (gags used in shooting) and on location. He and his team of special effects and stunt coordinators prepare for this by sitting down and determining what can actually be shot without computer simulation. After a long process of figuring out what s possible whatever is left is left for Visual Effects to fill in.
The scene involving flipping the truck in downtown Chicago, was a challenge initially for Chris Corbould, F/X Supervisor. Nolan said Corbouls kept coming back to me for months saying it could only be done with a van, but he knew Chris was a genius and would eventually figure out how to do it and he did, in one take. James asked Nolan how did he do it? He laughed and said, “I don’t know.”
He went on to say that CGI enhances the scene, for example when they use multiple cameras they could go back and digitally remove them from the footage and this allowed them to get different angles of a scene.
Asking about The Joker, as “the over the top” character in the film, James wanted to know how that was developed, how did he make that happen? Nolan replied that it was a combination of a lot of work in the script and that his brother and co-writer Jonah, was responsible for cracking the story for the movement of the character. In addition to that, Heath gave this iconic character an amazing performance that made him all the more realistic, anarchistic, and evil -- yet human and believable.
She asked if heath Ledger had seen any of his work. Nolan said they had a screening for him of the prologue (in IMAX) in London where he was working on a new movie. Nolan said, “He enjoyed it very much.” Nolan was in the middle of cutting the movie when Heath died.
James asked Bale if the Joker was a different dynamic for him to play against. Bale looked up at the audience and said smiling, “Talk about over the top characters and here I was sitting opposite him in a rubber suit and cowl.”
He said Heath was able to make The Joker a larger than life character and that he felt he grounded the role very well immersing himself in it. He said this is what he has always tried to do with Batman. Otherwise they would end up looking like a couple guys going to a Halloween party.
Bale said that the characters become part of them. He went on to discuss the interrogation scene between Batman and The Joker that takes place in a small holding cell with mirrors on all the walls. The crew was with them in there for most of the time, but on a few occasions parts were shot with just the two of them alone in the room. There they were, he said, in this small room with these mirrors all around them, sitting face to face -- two freaks!
Bale stated that Heath’s performance helped him to delve even deeper into his character. The Joker’s goal was provoking Batman into breaking his discipline and self imposed rules, just to show him he can be broken.
Christian ended this by saying he “would like to think that Heath got as much of a kick out of performing with me as I did playing against him.”
Discussing the evolution of The Jokers makeup, Nolan said it really was through extensive testing and a series of experiments that led them to the right combination. Tests were done with handhelds even in wardrobe fittings. He specifically mentioned showing Heath and the hair & makeup department the artwork and style of Francis Bacon as inspiration and some of the things he had been thinking about for the character.
Nolan said that Heath had done a great deal of research and was very involved in the development of both the interior and exterior of the character. He remembered during wardrobe fittings how Heath had to find just the right pair of shoes for the character. He tried on many costumes, prosthetics, long fingernails before coming up with just the right thing.
Nolan told the audience Heath would call him up with all these ideas for the character’s voice trying to explain how a ventriloquist talks without moving his lips. “Honestly I was a bit baffled about what he was talking about. I was obviously trying to be as supportive of all the work he was doing, but over the phone it was really quite hard to understand what he was getting at, until I saw him in person and then I understood exactly what he was doing.”
He said that it would be hard for anyone to imitate the voice Heath developed for the character on a consistent basis, that he discovered during the editing process that the tone, cadence and pitch was all over the place, very uncontrolled, shaking his pitch, from whispers to a very loud voice all very much in keeping with the character.
Nolan went on to say that great actors have to find the right costume, the right exterior to match the interior of their character, which ultimately enhances their performance. “It was interesting to watch Heath develop this to find the right combination he was comfortable with,” Nolan said.
Nolan was asked what he wanted to accomplish with Harvey Dent. He said there was a lot of different things they were trying to accomplish. He said the Harvey Dent story is very rich and tragic. He looked to the Harvey Dent character to provide a more emotional element. “We especially liked setting him up as ‘The White Knight of Gotham City’ and being a man Bruce Wayne admires.”
Another question was what it was like working with two successful composers. Nolan said he really enjoyed having both of these wonderful people working on this. They had both worked on BATMAN BEGINS together. He said he was extremely pleased with that score and was happy to use something similar, but they both insisted on coming up with new material, especially for The Joker.
There was a question about the viral marketing campaign leading up to the release of the film and how involved was Nolan with that. Nolan replied by saying that while he would like to take credit for all of it he really had to give the credit to the marketing department at Warner Bros. He did say that or the most part all of it is run by them but they were responsible for coming up with the complicated spider like complicated network of information that provided a great deal of fun for the fans leading up to July 18th.
Christian Bale was honestly puzzled about all of this. Amazingly, he actually appeared to not know about any of it. He explained being in Mexico might have something to do with it but he kept asking where he could find out about it. “Where can I find it, can I Google it?” he asked. Another member of the audience gave him a web site where all the different TDK sites are listed. He appeared to be genuinely grateful for the information.
In response to a question about memorable times on the set, Nolan said that there were so many it was hard to pick just one. He did tell the audience of the rehearsing a scene with Heath where eventually a building is blown up. The shot involved getting the character in just the right place prior to the explosion and the need for the character to not turn around and be completely oblivious to the mayhem he was leaving behind. Nolan said that Heath had done it perfectly in all the rehearsals leading up to the actual detonation and during the actual scene. While editing the footage he again watched Heath nonchalantly walk away from the actual explosion and then turn to the camera man saying, “Can we have just one more take on that?”
The final question is always a predictable one: “Will there be a third installment and can you tell us anything about it?”
Nolan paused for a second, looked down and then back up with a big smile on his face, moved to the edge of his chair and said, “Yes, and do you want to know how it opens up? It’s like this (gesturing with his arms). Tt starts with this big….”
He stopped.
“No, really, I really don’t know what the future holds, but I am looking forward to going on holiday in a few weeks time, and then we’ll see what happens.”
Oh well. But, between you and me, I don’t think there’s a doubt that Nolan and his extraordinary team will be back for a third. Just a gut feeling, but I’d take bets on it! - John Hoving, New York City
THE DARK KNIGHT opens July 18, 2008.
