Actor Michael Jai White reveals his original plans for his villain from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight movie.
Michael Jai White is promoting his new animated movie titled Batman: Soul of the Dragon, which is an alternate story by Bruce Timm set in the 1960s. This actor also played Gambol in the 2008 film The Dark Knight, a mobster who has the bad idea to face the Joker.
This is how he explained the memorable scene from The Dark Knight:
“Well, it’s a bit bittersweet because Heath Ledger is no longer with us,” explained the actor. “It’s hard for me to say, ‘It was great’ to know the result shortly after. It was a great opportunity to work with someone like Christopher Nolan. It was incredible. Being around a genius, who was so… regular. Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger are amazing, but they’re also some of the most level-headed people you’ve ever wanted to meet. That was really the advantage of working on that movie. ”
There were more plans for that villain that we didn’t get to see in the movie.
“They told me there was a plan for Gambol to go back and try to take over Gotham City. I think a lot of those plans were scrapped after what happened to Heath Ledger, ”reveals White. “I do not know. They never told me directly why the change was made. For anyone who sees the movie The Dark Knight, you know there was a kind of obtuse cut where you don’t know what happened to my character. ”
“You know, there is a knife in my mouth and then I am on the ground. With a movie on such a budget, there are rarely gray moments (laughs). My character was not written to die, so it is strange the edition is there. It was never thought of as a death scene. ”
If Heath Ledger hadn’t tragically passed away after filming The Dark Knight, it’s 2012 sequel The Dark Knight Rises would probably have been a very different movie. We might even see Gambol again trying to take over the city.
