So I stumbled upon this pretty rad channel on youtube while falling down one of those random youtube pits we all fall prey to every now and then
In my opinion, the key to doing the best Joker characterization is to make him an entirely emotion-driven character. No weighing options. Joker gets angry, he overreacts and kills you, and possibly even smashes your mailbox to the ground with a crowbar on his way back out of your burning house. He sees a pretty girl, he sighs and does the whole kiss-your-hand-and-carry-you-across-the-street thing. And of course there's the revengedetta against The Batman for putting him in his situation in the first place. He delights in irony. He is
insane, not "crazy"--when he feels an emotion, he commits to it. He is
literally a caricature, and he should be portrayed accordingly. The one exception to the emotion thing is that he actively works to avoid feeling remorse for his actions.
The actors who do the best job at portraying him are the ones who let the character's emotions drive the performance. So far, I feel like Hamill has come the closest to this, and that is why his performance has been so well-received.
--Patrick