Joaquin Phoenix Would Walk Off Set During Scenes: Joker Director
Joker anticipation keeps mounting as we get nearer to the release date of the movie. Now that it’s screened at various film festivals and individuals have had the opportunity to watch the film, buzzing around the performance of Joaquin Phoenix could be an early indication that he’s going to be in the Oscar season debate for awards consideration. But the process was challenging for Phoenix, who had the daunting job of demonstrating a man’s descent into insanity and the role for which he claims on Gotham City.
Never the fault of other actors
Director Todd Phillips explained that Phoenix would sometime walk off the set during the middle of filming scenes for Joker, confusing his co-stars in the process.
“In the middle of the scene, he’ll just walk away and walk out,” Phillips said in an interview. “And the poor other actor thinks it’s them and it was never them — it was always him, and he just wasn’t feeling it.” And after taking a breather, he said, “we’ll take a walk and we’ll come back and we’ll do it.”
De Niro Talks about Phoenix acting
Co-star Robert De Niro added that Phoenix was very into the process while making Joker.
“Joaquin was very intense in what he was doing, as it should be, as he should be,” De Niro said. “There’s nothing to talk about, personally, on the side, ‘Let’s have coffee.’ Let’s just do the stuff.”
Roles specifically tailored for Phoenix
Phillips also explained that they wrote the movie specifically for Phoenix .
“He was not keen on jumping into costume in any comic-book movie,” Phillips explained. “It’s not necessarily in his five-year plan — although I don’t think he has one.”
“I asked him to come over and audition me for it,” Phoenix said. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but he kept saying, ‘Let’s just be bold. Let’s do something.’”
Phillips added, “I kept waiting for him to just say, ‘Ok, I’m in,’ And he never did that.” Phoenix explained, “You just never get a yes. All you get is more questions.”
