No one was more surprised by the demise of Gambol in The Dark Knight than actor Michael Jai White, who played the menacing gangster.
Having shot additional scenes, and the fact that the script never called for the gangster to be killed, White told The Hollywood Reporter he didn't see the move coming that is, until he attended the premiere. Still, having worked on both sides of the camera throughout his decades-long career, he says he understood the thought process.
"It was the kind of thing where they had deeper intentions for Gambol; it was a character who was written for future use, I think," he says. "There were other plans to do stuff with that character and some things that were cut out. I think it's because of unfortunately losing Heath Ledger."
Calling it a matter of "tying up loose ends," White says he got why Nolan made the choice in postproduction.
It turns out, though, Gambol was not written to die, just to get a Glasgow smile of his own, White explains.
"I think that people can tell by the strange cut that I never shot a death scene," White says. "The character wasn't supposed to be gone. That is something that happened in editing later."
Imagine how amazing the final installment of Nolan's trilogy would have been if Ledger had stayed alive. ---