Scenes From The Dark Knight: Anthony Michael Hall Shares Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan Set Stories on Film's 16th Anniversary

Hall played Gotham news reporter Mike Engel in The Dark Knight.

By Liam Crowley

The Dark Knight turns 16 years old today. Christopher Nolan's follow up to Batman Begins (2005) was released on July 18th, 2008 and immediately cemented itself as a game-changer in the so-called comic book movie genre. It represented the most grounded, realistic, and gritty take on Batman yet, giving audiences a tale that feels like it exists outside their windows. The Dark Knight went on to gross over one billion dollars at the global box office, making it at the time, the most successful film based on a superhero ever released. Even as superhero properties became more and more prevalent in Hollywood, The Dark Knight remains unchallenged on many fans' Mount Rushmores.

Anthony-michael-hall-the-dark-knight-anniversary-christopher-nolan-heath-ledger
(Photo: Warner Bros.)

That feeling of aging like fine wine falls upon The Dark Knight's cast as well. Decorated actor Anthony Michael Hall, who's career began with cult classics 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club, still holds The Dark Knight among his highest career achievements.

"I was just so honored to be a part of that film," Hall, who played Gotham news reporter Mike Engel in The Dark Knight, told ComicBook. "Just to work alongside a master like Nolan, it was really incredible. I happened to shoot the first day of production, and I wound up working on the film for over the course of the whole shoot, which was I think six months. To work with guys that I admired growing up, like Gary Oldman, Michael Caine. It was just a real privilege and a pleasure to be a part of that movie."

Hall holds Nolan in high regard. The Dark Knight is the only project the two have worked on together, and Hall can still recall sharing the set with him like it was yesterday.

"As I made that film, I would look at him across the set and it was incredible," Hall recalled. "I felt like I was working with Hitchcock or something at the time. He actually is younger than me, but he has such an old soul feeling to him, Nolan, and a lot of it is his intellect. He's a brilliant guy and he's firing in a lot of cylinders. He's got a brilliant mind. I remember meeting with him in his office and behind him on the wall, he had incredible images of the Batmobile, which somebody in production later told me he had designed. This is a guy who was just really creative on a lot of levels. I think he really reinvented the genre by giving it more gravity, more pathos, more intensity."

the-dark-knight-behind-the-scenes
(Photo:

Christopher Nolan (center) directing Christian Bale (left) and Michael Caine (right) on the set of The Dark Knight.

- Warner Bros.)

"One of my first experiences when I got to London, I had a painting commission by an artist, a family friend, and I had him paint the one sheet from Batman Begins," Hall continued. "He did a beautiful job and I gave that as a gift to (producer) Emma Thomas and Chris just as a thank you for putting me in the film."

That creativity was on full display with the characterization of Heath Ledger's Joker. In many ways, The Dark Knight is Joker's film, and that idea is exemplified during the clown prince of crime's scene with Hall's Engel. There, Joker hangs a kidnapped Engel upside down as he films him in a blackmail video that airs on Gotham City News.

"We get to the set that day and we're waiting around. There's just hundreds of people and scores of trucks. We're all just sitting around and I see Heath," Hall recalled that day on set. "I'm coming out of my trailer and I was getting frustrated. I was kind of bored. I just wanted get to work. I see Heath come out of his trailer and I'm like, 'When the hell are we going to shoot?' I'm just complaining like an actor would on a set like a dumba--. And Heath, without missing a beat, he just walked by me, went, 'I can't work like this!' and just kept walking. I think what he was doing in that moment was kind of making fun of me and my impatience.

"Cut to about an hour later, the AD comes to me, he pulls me aside. He goes, 'Okay, we're going to go shoot that scene where Heath, the Joker, hangs you upside down. Chris is going to have Heath direct the scene.' The story is twofold. It's like that comment he made to me, which was kind of funny and kind of caught me off guard, was something a director would say, and Heath ends up directing that scene."

Ledger directs that scene as Joker himself, holding the camera like its handheld, fidgeting with it throughout.

Related:

"He shot it very, very viscerally and all that movement. It works great in the film," Hall added. "It's very cool. There's kind of an anarchy to the way he shot it. It's just like craziness."

The Dark Knight is streaming now on Max and Hulu.

Trending Now: