Batman is portrayed by Christian Bale, while Heath Ledger plays the Joker in the last role filmed before the actor’s death in January.

Actor Christian Bale shows the Caped Crusader can be a real head turner

Christian Bale immerses himself into his film roles, and that is definitely the case with "The Dark Knight", the second film in the rebooted "Batman" film franchise of director Christopher Nolan.

But it helps if he can move his head. And now he can, making for a more dynamically threatening Caped Crusader. But he's also met his match in the Joker, the maniacal supervillain. In an already acclaimed performance, the Joker is portrayed by Heath Ledger in that actor's final role, filmed before his death in January.

With "The Dark Knight" playing in cinemas, Bale sat for an interview to talk about the new Batsuit and working with the Joker.

Do you feel you were born to play this part?

That's pushing it to say I was born to play this part, but I definitely only have an interest in playing Batman the way that Chris Nolan likes to have him portrayed. And I think that this second movie has surpassed the first. It stands as a great movie regardless of genre.

How about the suit?

It's much more comfortable. It's heavier but it's actually much more comfortable. I can move my head. It's more mobile. In the first one I was having to fight against the suit in order to be able to do the fight sequences. In every way [the new suit is] more advanced.

Chris had been very adamant. We've got to be able to move the head. Batman has never moved his head in any of the movies.

There's some real interplay between Batman and the Joker,  like they are two parts of the same personality?

Yeah, absolutely, there's a great dynamic. The Joker is just gleeful to come up against Batman because everyone else has been too easy. He's an intelligent psychopath. He's bent on chaos and destruction. It's impossible to leverage him because he's not looking for anything but living in the moment and living in that anarchy. He's completely uncompromising, as is Batman.

How did the Joker's character develop?

Heath was wonderful ... he completely immersed himself. When he was The Joker, he was The Joker throughout. He had absolute commitment to that. He portrayed the character in a way that has not been portrayed before. He has this kind of anarchic, punk, "A Clockwork Orange" approach to it. Heath has done such a damn good job, and if Chris decides to make third movie, he has set himself a real challenge of how do you up the ante with any villain after Heath's Joker?

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>> "The Dark Knight" is the sequel to "Batman Begins", the 2005 film that rebooted the "Batman" comic's film franchise.

>> Previous Batman films have included the campy 1960s film based on the US television show, director Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992) and Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" (1995) and "Batman and Robin" (1997).

>> Actors who have donned the Batsuit before include Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

>> The Joker was previously portrayed by Jack Nicholson in 1989's "Batman".