'Ledger deserves every honour'

Updated 17.13 Sat Jul 26 2008
Keywords: movie, film, ledger, heath, bale, batman, maggie, gyllenhaal, knight, dark

Dark Knight star Maggie Gyllenhaal says Heath Ledger should be honoured for his role as The Joker despite the tragedy of his death.

The older sister of Hollywood heart-throb Jake Gyllenhaal said she believes Ledger should be honoured "in every possible way" for his performance.

Gyllenhaal, who has a daughter Ramona with actor Peter Sarsgaard, said: "I imagine that it's lovely to get an Academy Award and I do think it's a way of the community honouring a performance and I certainly think his performance was extraordinary.

"But with him, not being alive, it seems funny to talk about an Oscar....it's sad."

In the new movie, Gyllenhaal plays Bruce Wayne's childhood pal Rachel Dawes, previously undertaken by Tom Cruise's wife Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

Set a year after the events of the first of the films directed by Christopher Nolan, Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon and new district attorney Harvey Dent attempt to clean up the streets of Gotham City until the sadistic criminal mastermind known only as The Joker appears.

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