Heath Ledger felt 'smug' about The Dark Knight

Heath Ledger felt "smug" about his work on Batman movie 'The Dark Knight', according to fellow actor Andrew Garfield.

The tragic star played the Joker in the superhero movie opposite Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader but died from a prescription drug overdose In January 2008 before it was released and he went on to win a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance - and now Garfield has revealed Ledger was immensely proud of the project.

Speaking on the 'Happy Sad Confused' podcast, Garfield revealed they met shortly after filming wrapped on 'The Dark Knight'. Garfield said: "He was so smug about it. I was like, ‘How did that go?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really good'."

Garfield and Ledger worked together on 2009 movie 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' which had to pause production after the actor's death and his role was competed by Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell who stepped in for him.

'The Social Network' star added of Ledger: "I remember his like, Empire magazine cover came out and he was like, ‘Oh, they used a f****** s*** photo'.

"And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, dude that looks f****** incredible.’ And he was like, ‘Nah, the pose is all wrong, it looks kinda like a conventional version of what an actor … you’ll see.’ And yeah, I did see."

He went on to reveal Ledger gifted him a pair of sunglasses, which has kept to this day, and praised his "generous" nature.

Garfield added: "He was just a very generous, beautiful, creative spirit. He was a kind of beacon, it was like a wild animal ...

"He was so free and so wild and so, kind of dangerous on set in a way that was the kind of thing that is inspiring and spontaneous. He would say before every take, or one take every scene, ‘Let’s have some fun with this one'."