 MOVIES |  | WIZARD INSIDER: THE JOKER | | Fans demanded a darker, more violent, murderous Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’—now they’ve got it | | | By Rickey Purdin | | Posted February 8, 2008 | |  | |  RAGS TO RICHES
“[Director] Chris [Nolan] didn’t want him to have a brand-new costume made,” says “The Dark Knight” costume designer Lindy Hemming. “I started getting pieces together, and we made up a look, but always keeping them in various shades of purple. There are like 25 of those coats, all in different stages of breaking down because of the things happening to [the Joker].”
PROJECT RUNWAY
“The first place that I looked [for inspiration] was obviously pictures of the Joker in past graphic novels, comic books, films, whatever, and then after that, I started to think, ‘Well, how could someone be like this?’” explains Hemming. “Then I wanted to contemporize it, so I started looking in fashion.”
GREEN SCREAM
“I wanted to give [the Joker] a green thing, and on the last day, I made him a green waistcoat and we tried it on and it worked,” recalls Hemming. “I think that it does look like the Joker, and I think that it’s important because his whole Joker style is much more Goth/punk. It’s much more of a street kind of Joker rather than a man who puts on a clown mask.”
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
“We find [the Joker] dressed like this [when he first appears in the film],” says Hemming. “You can assume that he might’ve been dressed like that for years. He may have always been wearing those clothes. Instead of putting them on like the Joker has done before, you find him wearing these. He’s already scarred in the film, so the makeup comes from what he does to enhance that rather than to look like a clown.”
UNCOMMON CRIMINAL
“What’s strong about the Joker was this idea of this commitment to anarchy, to chaos,” reveals “The Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan. “He’s not just a bank robber or an ordinary criminal who’s out for any kind of material gain. His chief motivation would be that of anarchist.”
WHAT THE FROCK?
“Strangely enough, all the catwalks just before we began doing [‘The Dark Knight’] had purple clothes, which was a bit sad really, but they did,” laughs Hemming. “There were a lot of frock coats and that kind of look. I was going for stovepipe trousers and frock coats and things, and Gucci even produced men’s evening wear and coats that were just copied from frock coats.”
‘ROTTEN’ INSPIRATION
“You say, ‘What’s the rationale for him being able to dress like this?’ That’s when I started looking at the pop world and I ended up looking at the Sex Pistols and Johnny Rotten,” says Hemming. “I was just thinking, ‘Well, there are plenty of guys out there who actually are as extreme as this, and there’s nothing wrong with doing it.’ You’ve got to make it look like someone really dresses like this. It can’t just be, ‘Hello, I’m putting on my costume.’ It’s got to be wherever he lives and whatever he’s been doing, he’s been wearing that.”
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