Andrew Garfield Says Heath Ledger 'Was So Smug’ About ‘The Dark Knight'

During a new interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter ), Andrew Garfield said Heath Ledger predicted The Dark Knight ’s success before it’s release and “was so smug about it.”

Garfield met Ledger while they were working together on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus shortly after Ledger had finished shooting Christopher Nolan ’s seminal superhero flick. “He was so smug about it,” Garfield said of Ledger’s opinion of the film, and presumably his future Oscar-winning performance. “I was like, ‘How did that go?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really good.’”

However, Garfield’s comments shouldn’t be interpreted as slighting Ledger, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 28 roughly six months before The Dark Knight ’s release. His parents and sister would go on to accept his posthumous Oscar. Later in the interview, the Amazing Spider-Man actor noted that Ledger taught him a lot about the business, both in front of an behind the camera.

“I remember his, like, Empire magazine cover came out and he was like, ‘Oh, they used a f--king s--t photo,’” Garfield recalled. “And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, dude? That looks fucking incredible.’ And he was like, ‘Nah, the pose is all wrong, it looks kinda like a conventional version of what an actor…you’ll see.’ And yeah, I did see.”

Garfield continued: “He was so free and so wild and so kind of dangerous on set in a way that was the kind of thing that is inspiring and spontaneous. He would say before every take, or one take every scene, ‘Let’s have some fun with this one.’”

Almost 20 years later, Garfield still thinks of the brief time he spent with Ledger. “He was just a very generous, beautiful, creative spirit,” Garfield said. “He was a kind of beacon, it was like a wild animal.”

You can check out Garfield’s full interview below.