Chapter 607: Illegitimate Daughter

He committed evil not for money, but for the joy of seeing his own philosophical victory—the corruption of human nature and the destruction of the world. In his words, "chaos."

Undoubtedly, by design, the Joker was a "great criminal."

Once filming began, Heath Ledger's outstanding performance perfectly captured the Joker.

As the shoot progressed, with constant communication with Duke after wrapping up each day, his performance only grew stronger.

While displaying the Joker's madness, Heath Ledger also portrayed him as a "great criminal mastermind."

The Joker's schemes focused on exploiting the weaknesses of human nature, slipping through its inherent flaws. If those flaws already existed in some dark corner, he did his utmost to drag them into the light, expose them, push them further, and corrupt them entirely.

This approach never failed, even among gang members. The robbers received orders to kill their accomplices after completing a specific step, and sure enough, they followed through. He could always find a reason to make people abandon their established principles, using their own hands to commit crimes while leaving them to bear the consequences.

Rachel's death became Batman's unspoken agony, leaving him feeling responsible; at the same time, it marked the turning point in Harvey Dent's life.

With just a gentle push from the Joker, Harvey Dent trampled the supreme law he had once served underfoot. Only a single step separated the hero from the thug.

Undeniably, the underlying nature of "Two-Face" had been lurking within him all along.

Half a month into the filming of The Dark Knight, seeing Heath Ledger and Nicolas Cage in increasingly good form, Duke slightly altered the shooting schedule, moving up a crucial scene between Harvey Dent and the Joker.

Inside a soundstage dressed as a hospital room, half of Nicolas Cage's face was covered in a green screen to vividly display Two-Face. Traditional makeup alone was not enough; the most vital component would be post-production CGI.

On the other side, Heath Ledger donned a nurse's uniform, which, paired with his Joker makeup, made him look even more bizarre.

Once the two actors and all departments were ready, Duke gave the order to start rolling. Heath Ledger and Nicolas Cage were indeed in excellent form. There were no accidental breaks in character or laughter; bringing a blend of eeriness and gravity, they began this critical scene.

Heath Ledger walked to the bedside, pulled down his surgical mask, and offered a greeting with a strange, guilty tone and an embarrassed expression. "Hi..."

Seeing the Joker with his mask removed, Nicolas Cage, bound to the bed, grew agitated and furious.

Heath Ledger sat directly on the chair beside the bed. "Look, Harvey," he said, "I don't want to make things unpleasant between us. You and that..."

"Rachel!" Nicolas Cage roared in fury. "She's Rachel!"

"When you and Rachel were kidnapped, I was sitting in Gordon's jail," Heath Ledger said reasonably. "I didn't do this."

Even under the heavy Joker makeup, the expression Heath Ledger revealed at this moment made it seem as though he genuinely had nothing to do with it. He was just an innocent bystander.

Nicolas Cage glared at the Joker, his gaze sharp as a sword. "Those were your men. Your plan."

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? Don't you know me by now? I'm like a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. I just do things."

Delivered by Heath Ledger, these words sounded entirely natural. "The mob has plans. The cops have plans. Gordon's got plans. Y'know, they're schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I'm not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. So, when I say..."

He grabbed Nicolas Cage's hand. "Come on, don't be afraid. When I say that what happened to you and your girlfriend wasn't personal, you know I'm telling the truth."

At this point, Heath Ledger began untying Nicolas Cage, continuing, "It's the schemers that put you where you are. You were a schemer, you had plans, and look where that got you."

Nicolas Cage tried to attack Heath Ledger, but the Harvey Dent he was portraying had just suffered massive trauma. Within a few moves, the Joker subdued him.

Through Duke's monitor, Heath Ledger seemed frantic, as if he had truly become the Joker. He effortlessly delivered the Joker's philosophy. "I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself."

"Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hm? You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying."

Under normal circumstances, such words would only sound absurd. But Nicolas Cage's Harvey Dent had just suffered a massive physical and mental blow, and a thoughtful expression crept onto his face.

Heath Ledger continued, "If I tell the press tomorrow, for instance, 'I'm going to shoot a juvenile delinquent' or 'blow up a truckload of soldiers,' nobody panics, because it's all part of the plan. But when I say, 'one former old mayor will die,' everyone loses their minds."

By now, Heath Ledger was completely unhinged. He pulled out a revolver and handed it to Cage. "Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!"

Watching the monitor, Duke slowly stood up. "Great! Heath, Nicolas, excellent work!"

The two actors sat there without moving, seemingly yet to break character. Duke said nothing more, and no one from the crew stepped forward to disturb them. A few minutes later, Nicolas Cage and Heath Ledger finally headed to the rest area, one after the other.

But the moment they sat down, Duke called out, "You both did great just now, but I think you can do even better! So, take a ten-minute break, and we'll keep shooting!"

They filmed this scene for the entire afternoon before Duke announced a wrap. He selected the three best takes to use as material for post-production.

The day's shoot came to an end. While directing the crew to encrypt the footage they had just filmed, Duke heard someone greet him.

"Hi, Duke."

He turned and saw Tina Fey walking over with two women, one older and one younger. The two bore a slight resemblance to each other; at first glance, they looked like mother and daughter.

Duke reached out and shook hands with both of them. "Hello, Julia."

The older woman was the former top actress in Hollywood, Julia Roberts. After exchanging greetings with Duke, she introduced the younger girl beside her. "This is my niece, Emma Roberts. I'm accompanying her on a set visit."

"A set visit?" Duke asked, a little puzzled.

"Eric Roberts," Tina Fey whispered as a reminder.

Duke immediately understood. It was the actor playing the mob boss Maroni in their cast.

The two sides were merely acquaintances, and since Julia Roberts had jumped ship from Nancy Josephson's agency to CAA a few years ago, there wasn't much of a relationship between them. After a brief chat, Julia Roberts and Emma Roberts headed to the makeup trailers to find Eric Roberts.

Duke and Tina Fey left the soundstage and grabbed a random golf cart. Duke drove, with Tina Fey in the passenger seat, and they headed toward the main gates of Warner Studios.

Perhaps women were naturally prone to gossip, and since there was no one else around, Tina Fey curiously asked Duke, "The rumor in the industry has always been that Emma Roberts is Julia Roberts's illegitimate daughter. Is that true?"

"I don't know." Duke shook his head. "Aside from the Roberts family, I doubt anyone else has a clue."

Hollywood and the tabloids had always circulated such rumors. Besides Emma Roberts's rather unusual background, it also had to do with Julia Roberts's chaotic private life in the late eighties and early nineties.

Even though nearly everyone had stopped bringing up her dark history once Julia Roberts cemented her status as a Hollywood superstar, these murky, unspoken tales still made the rounds in private.

Of course, in Duke's view, the possibility wasn't very high.

Judging by height alone, Emma Roberts didn't seem to have inherited Julia Roberts's genes.

After switching to a car, their conversation gradually turned to The Dark Knight, especially the scene they had filmed that afternoon, which had sparked a great deal of curiosity in Tina Fey.

"I haven't read the full version of the script yet," she told Duke from the passenger seat. "But after reading some excerpts this afternoon and watching Heath Ledger and Nicolas Cage's performances, I found it quite interesting."

"Oh?" Duke turned the steering wheel, merging the car onto the road to Malibu.

"The Joker merely tells them that their loved ones are facing some sort of threat, and these people easily cross their own bottom lines, leading Harvey Dent in the direction the Joker specified," Tina Fey said. "And then a furious Harvey Dent inflicts this very method on others, even his former partners. Is this human nature?"

"On the surface, all of this holds true. In a life-and-death crisis, it's understandable that a person would first and foremost think of themselves."

Speeding up slightly, Duke remarked casually, "Very few of us have experienced such extreme situations, so it's hard to imagine how we'd act under those circumstances, or whether we'd live up to our ideals. However, this forgiving mindset quietly conceals a truth—what kind of power is it that can control people so precisely in its grasp, like a gecko with its tail stepped on, forced to surrender a piece of itself? Should people acknowledge the coercion this power exerts over them?"