The role that brought him fame at the Oscars a few years ago is now one of the biggest failures of 2024 because of the sequel Joker: Folie à Deux. Considered one of the best performers of his generation, Joaquin Phoenix He is not having a good professional or media moment. On the one hand, his rudeness to director Todd Haynes, leaving the crew stranded just days before starting a new film, did not give him a good professional image. But on the other hand, the worst is perhaps linked to the fateful performance in the ticket office of his last three feature films, including Beau is scared And Napoleon. But his role as a criminal clown could have come years before his highly praised debut in Todd Phillips’ film. Well, as the interpreter just told us recently, he spoke with Christopher Nolan of the character before The Black Knight was a reality.
Today there is a certain unanimity on the fact that Heath Ledger’s interpretation is surely that of the best Joker in cinema. At least genre cinema that represents the DC Comics universe. But, in front of the actor The knight’s destiny entered fully into production, it seems that obviously other names were considered. One of them was Phoenix, although the actor was not very convinced about wanting to participate in the world of superhero cinema and his conversation with the filmmaker of Oppenheimer would end up remaining as one of those anecdotes which decline in long lists of actors that certain characters could have occupied in place of the original performer. However, in this case, Phoenix would end up making up during the 2019 box office success that topped 1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office.
Joaquin Phoenix could have been the Joker before
In his latest interview, Phoenix initially said he was in talks to star with Christian Balé the continuation of restart that the British director launched in 2005.
“I remember talking to Chris Nolan about The Black Knight and for some reason this was not done. “I wasn’t ready at that point,” Phoenix began, emphasizing. Between his first foray with the character created by Bob Keane and the appearance of the Joker, Nolan filmed The last thingtherefore between the two installments of the adaptation of the Gotham vigilante several years passed during which the scenario of the masterpiece of the genre was surely rewritten and various casting processes. However, even the Signs and Gladiator actor can’t imagine the aforementioned film without Ledger’s presence.
“It’s one of those things where you ask yourself, ‘What’s stopping me from doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else. “There’s another person who’s going to do something…I can’t imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have Heath’s performance. Ledger in this movie, right?” Phoenix revealed on the podcast. Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin.
The Oscar wins of Ledger and Phoenix made the Joker a one of the most coveted roles by today’s actors, but it was not always this way. Phoenix remembers his doubts when Nolan I contacted him to talk on what many consider to be an over-the-top comic book character, although he’s not sure Nolan really liked him for the role: “I don’t know if Christopher Nolan approached me and said ‘ you are definitely the right person.’ I don’t remember the context in which we met, but I know we met. My feeling was that I shouldn’t do that, but maybe he also said ‘It’s not. him.'”
He finally agreed to play this role.
Phoenix of course changed his mind and agreed to participate in the Todd Phillips version who drank straight from the The imagination of Martin Scorsese. The actor found the storyline so interesting that he ended up putting aside his aversion to superheroes.
After three disastrous weeks on billboards, Joker: Folie à Deux He’s no longer in the cinema. Warner will try to minimize damage to the video-on-demand market before making it free on its Max platform. In 2025, the American has two pending releases with wife Rooney Mara; The island And Polaris. But without a doubt, the most anticipated premiere is the one that will lead him to star alongside Emma Stone in Ari Aster’s new film, Eddington.
