Michael Caine had played Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred since Batman Begins so he must know something about the story more than anyone of us. MTV recently spoke with the actor and he revealed that topping Heath Ledger’s iconic performance of Joker can only come from Johnny Depp and Seymour Hoffman.
“When Christopher [Nolan] said we were going to do ‘The Dark Knight’ next, I didn’t what that meant in Batman terms,” related Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth. “I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, s–t! How are you going to top Jack [Nicholson]?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.
“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’”
Both Depp and Hoffman had recently been buzzed to play Riddler and Penguin respectively. Depp’s name was almost attached to the role the day after Batman opened while Seymour Hoffman, along with Angelina Jolie and Zac Efron have only come up recently.
In our poll this week, we asked whom readers would wanna see as Batman’s next villain and Depp’s name has been voted 41%. So I guess, even with just a handful of votes, it pretty much represents reality. =P
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