After reading Wired's article about the new Batman movie last night, we got ridiculously overexcited for July 18 when The Dark Knight hits theaters. (Filmed in Imax! Christian Bale stands on the top of the Sears Tower! Only one stuntman didn't fall off the Batpod!)

Since the No. 1 storyline for the movie will be the sad and untimely passing of Heath Ledger, we thought we'd go back into the archives and re-read an interview he gave to the gone-but-not-forgotten FHM in 2007. It's one of his first interviews he gave about the role so he's evasive — "This is the first time I'd had to speak about it and no ones really prepped me and (laughs) on what I can say or not." — but there are some interesting bits nonetheless.

A couple choice excerpts after the jump. You know you'll read them eventually.

Everyone said that you were fearless taking on this role, is that really true?
I definitely feared it. Anything that fears me, I guess, excites me at the same time and so I don't know if I was fearless, but I certainly had to put on a brave face and believe that I had something up my sleeve and something that was different.

How do you get into the mindset of evil?
I think we all have it in us, you know.

Everybody says how dark the film is but is there any moment of just kind of twisted fun that The Joker brings to the table?
Yeah, yeah, all the time. There's nothing consistent about him at all, so he's not consistently dark or consistently fun, or funny, just going up and down the whole time.

You had fun in terms of playing it?
Yeah, it's the most fun I've had, playing a role.