Joaquin Phoenix rose to prominence with his smashing hit film Joker. But there was a time when he didn’t want to play the role of Joker in the 2019 Thriller drama. The director of the film Joker Todd Philips said he and Phoenix had different perspectives about the lead character of the movie.
The character Joker Arthur Fleck wasn’t the character the 48-year-old actor wanted to play initially. Philips had Phoenix in his mind for a very long time but it took some time for Phoenix to go forward with the role.
Joaquin Phoenix wanted to do a lower-budget character movie
Joaquin Phoenix’s intense character as Arthur Fleck the Joker was one of the most memorable characters in Hollywood in the year 2019. The movie was well received by the audiences and people applauded for Phoenix’s acting skills as well. In an Interview, the Beau Is Afraid actor talked about having this idea of doing a lower-budget character study movie. He also mentioned that he called his agent to talk about it. The 48-year-old actor said,
“Three or four years ago, I called my agent and said ‘Why don’t they want to take one of these characters and just make a lower budget film about it, a movie but a character study, and why not take one of the villains?’ And I thought, ‘You can’t do the Joker, because, you know, it’s just you can’t do that character, it’s just been done.”
He further added,
“So I was trying to think of other characters, and he said ‘I’ll set up a general meeting with Warner Bros.’ And I said ‘I’m not gonna go, I can’t go to a general meeting.’ So I completely forgot about it, and so then I heard about this idea, I was like, ‘Oh that’s so exciting, that’s the kind of experience I wanted to have, with a movie based on a comic character.’ I felt like you could get something on screen.”
Phoenix won an Oscar for the portrayal of a notorious Joker in the 2019 movie Joker. Many people said the actor deserved the honor of an Oscar as he did incredibly well in the movie.
Joaquin Phoenix described his Joker director Todd Philips as an impressive director
Although in the initial days of the filming of the movie Joker, director Todd Philips, and Phoenix had a different mindset about the film but still they managed to make a masterpiece. During an interview, the Her actor talked about Philips and said he is a very interesting and impressive person, the Walk The Line actor said,
“He seems to have a very interesting understanding of this world and what he’s trying to say.”
Phoenix also said that he felt the whole filming experience was very unique for him. He explained that he was also very scared while filming the movie but there was something very appealing when he was working with Philips.
Source: NME; Cheatsheet
