MTV: There's this little film called "The Dark Knight" you're doing ...

Ledger: Done.

MTV: Michael Caine told me recently that you'd created "one of the scariest performances" he'd ever seen. Is that part of the goal, to scare the crap out of people next summer?

Ledger: It was one of the goals, yeah. There are a few more surprises to him. I don't know what I'm allowed to say. Warner Bros. and DC [Comics], I'm sure they have hit men ready to attack this room if I say anything. They'll shoot me when I leave.

MTV: Is there anything redeeming to this character?

Ledger: Not at all. He has zero empathy. You'll just have to wait and see. It's the most fun I've had with a character and probably will ever have. The movie itself is far exceeding my expectations. I think it's going to be a really fun movie to watch.

MTV: Christian Bale has cited "A Clockwork Orange" and Sid Vicious as two inspirations for your performance.

Ledger: Yeah. "A Clockwork Orange" was a very early starting point for Christian and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether. And Sid Vicious, yeah, I guess so. There's a bit of everything in him. There's nothing that consistent. It was an exhausting process. I actually had quite a bit of time off between scenes — weeks sometimes. But it was required because whenever I was working, it exhausted me to the bone. At the end of the day, I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. I was absolutely wrecked. If I had to do that every day, I couldn't have done what I did. The schedule really permitted me to exhaust myself.