Today marks the 10th anniversary of Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Batman sequel The Dark Knight, and actor Michael Jai White has been chatting to The Hollywood Reporter about his role in the movie as crime boss Gambol – and in particular, his death at the hands of Heath Ledger’s Joker.
As White explains, Gambol was only meant to receive a Glasgow smile from the Clown Prince of Crime; however, as this is happening the camera cuts away, leaving audiences to imagine a rather gruesome (and somewhat confusing) off-screen death – one which White only learned about himself when he saw the film at the premiere.
“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,” states White. “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. 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.”
“Being that I have been on both sides of the camera, I understood,” White went on to explain when asked about his reaction to his character’s death. “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.'”
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