Was Jackie Earle Haley's performance as good as Heath Ledger's?

[sojourner]

Heath - if only for the fact that in no scene of his in Darknight do we even get a hint of it being him. If you had shown that movie to people without revealing Heath was playing the Joker I think 9 out of 10 would not be able to name the actor. In too many movies instead of getting an acting performance we get the star playing himself. Heath showed us how it should be done.

 

[Emher]

^Exactly. Haley was fantastic as Rorscarch, but just the simple fact that my brother couldn't believe me when I said that The Joker was the same guy that played Mel Gibson's son in The Patriot says something about the power of the performance.

 

[Shurik]

Even when I knew that Heath Ledger played the Joker I couldn't recognize him. There was nothing of Heath Ledger in this character - not the voice, not the movements, not the facial expressions, nothing.

Jackie Earle Haley was great as Rorschach, but most of his time in the movie he was under a mask that covered his entire face. The scenes without the mask were amazing (especially when he was with a psychiatrist).