The Dark Knight's Most Shocking Stunt Knocked An Actor Out Three Times

The Oscars finally decided they will honor stunt performers starting in 2028, and what a road it was for Hollywood's fall guys. What did it take to finally earn such recognition? Well, aside from sometimes literally giving their lives as a result of their perilous work, as was the case with the James Caan Western struck by tragedy, these dedicated performers have suffered all manner of injury throughout the history of filmmaking. Take actor and stuntman Charles Jarman, who was knocked out during the filming of the pencil trick scene in "The Dark Knight." In fact, Jarman lost consciousness a full three times (that he recalls!) from having his head slammed into the table by Heath Ledger's Joker.

It would be hard to pick the most memorable moment in Christopher Nolan's seminal 2008 Batman sequel. "The Dark Knight" remains the gold standard for comic book movies to this day, and while so much of that comes down to undeniably brilliant performances, writing, and production design, the movie is also just full of unforgettable moments that helped Nolan's movie ingrain itself into pop culture.

The pencil trick scene is just one example, made all the better by Ledger reveling in his character's sardonic humor. After the Joker interrupts a meeting of Gotham's crime bosses, he's approached by a henchman (Jarman) working for Gambol (Michael Jai White). The Clown Prince of Crime quickly asks his disgruntled audience if they want to see a magic trick, before jamming a pencil into the countertop and ramming Gambol's lackey's head into it, piercing the man's eye and killing him instantly before finishing with a facetious "ta da." It's a brutal moment that reinforces Joker's savage and unpredictable nature. It was also a pretty savage experience for the actor, who blacked out three times during filming.

15 years later, "The Dark Knight" is better than you remember. As is the pencil trick moment, which remains such a standout that Vulture produced an entire oral history of that one scene. According to Charles Jarman, the whole thing was shot over two days, with Christopher Nolan overseeing 22 takes with a real, non-CGI pencil. As Jarman recalled, Nolan approached him ahead of filming and said, "Look, we're going to do a couple of shots where you need to be able to take that pencil away," which meant he had to sweep the pencil away before his head hit the surface. "It was a little hairy, because the pencil's stuck in the table," Jarman remembered. "If, for some reason, I didn't get my hand in time, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Well, possibly through a Ouija board."

Thankfully, Jarman avoided becoming another tragedy of the stunt performer business, but he did take an absolute battering. Production used two different tables, one made of wood, and another with a half-centimeter galvanized rubber covering to absorb the impact. "We tried it first with a real table," said Jarman, "and, I've got to tell you, I think the real table was a lot easier. It was thinner. It gave more." In the actor's experience, the rubber table was much more unforgiving due to the fact "there was less give," with Jarman likening it to "putting a towel over a brick wall, and running into it." Perhaps unsurprisingly then, the actor suffered three separate knockouts while performing the scene, which would be terrifying enough for someone who also didn't have to remain sharp enough to sweep out a pencil every time.

Charles Jarman has worked on numerous projects in his 25 years in the industry, beginning with "Gladiator" back in 2000. During that time, he's worked on multiple comic book movies, including "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Black Widow," and even Matt Reeves' "what if Batman was in 'Seven'" fantasy, "The Batman." But none of those projects required him to have his head rammed into a solid table with a thin rubber coating by a soon-to-be Oscar winner.

According to Jarman, he was knocked out three times (though there might have been more, given the state of his cortex at the time). "My second day, my forehead came out to, I'd say, at least an inch from my head," he remembered. "The first [knockout] was for a couple of seconds, and I remember that daze and coming to. Because it was the first time, I didn't want to mess the shot up." According to Jarman, this first knockout was one of the few times Heath Ledger actually broke character to ask if his scene partner was okay. "Heath actually asked me when I was coming to, saying, 'Are you okay? Are you okay?' I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, I'm good.' Then he slipped back into the Joker again."

It would have been nice if someone checked on Jarman other than the guy who was playing a murderous psychopath a little too believably. Thankfully, nobody actually got a pencil through the eye, and now it's just a funny (if slightly alarming) story.