Toronto Film Festival: Playing the Joker 'wasn't an easy decision' for Joaquin Phoenix

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Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a clown-for-hire and stand-up comic in ‘Joker.’
WARNER BROS. PICTURES

TORONTO – Everybody freely admits that Joaquin Phoenix was a hard sell to play the title character of “Joker,” though director Todd Phillips was dead-set on getting his man.

“I was going to his house, basically begging him to do the movie,” Phillips said Monday night at a post-screening QA at the Toronto Film Festival. “I go, ‘So I keep coming up here every day. At some point you, you gotta say are you in or out.’ And he said, ‘That’s not how you do it.’

‘I always say he never really signed onto the movie. One day he just showed up at a wardrobe fitting.’

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Phoenix is the latest actor to take the classic Batman villain to the big screen, with a psychologically dark version of the comic-book clown prince of crime. And Toronto is the latest stop on the awards-season circuit after winning the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.

“Joker” (in theaters Oct. 4) chronicles the descent into madness for Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), a wannabe stand-up comedian and hired clown who’s mocked and disrespected for his frequent fits of uncontrollable laughter and off-center personality. The downward spiral of his life leads to him donning face paint and a colorful suit, and he’s the spark that lights a revolutionary spirit in crime-ridden Gotham City.

Phoenix found the character to be energizing, exciting and limitless in terms of interpretations. However, he admits he was torn initially about taking on the role.

“It wasn’t an easy decision at first, but I knew that I really liked Todd and I wanted to work with him,” Phoenix said. “Honestly, I didn’t (expletive) know. I didn’t. But there was something that was drawing me toward it and it just evolved as we worked together. It started becoming something more than I could have anticipated and it was one of the greatest experiences of my career.”

The film itself is influenced by 1970s cinema such as “Taxi Driver,” “Death Wish” and “Network,” while also taking different pieces from the Joker of the comics to create this new persona.

“We don’t believe that if you fall into a vat of acid, you get white face and green hair,” Phillips said. “So everything was, let’s run it through as realistic a lens as possible.”

The original idea for “Joker” when Phillips approached Warner Bros. was not just one movie but “sort of a side label to DC where you can do these kind of character-study, low-rent, low-budget movies where you get a filmmaker to come in and do some deep dive into a character.”

Also, don’t get your hopes up for a throwdown between Phoenix’s Joker and Robert Pattinson’s younger Dark Knight in Matt Reeves’ upcoming “The Batman.” “Joker” was “never meant to connect” with other DC films, Phillips said. “So I don’t see it connecting to anything in the future. This is just this movie.”

The project is a departure for Phillips, mainly known for his comedies like “Road Trip” and “The Hangover” trilogy, but what’s important for him now is “just working with great actors,” a comment that saw Phoenix playfully turn and pay attention to his director.

“I would do anything with him,” Phillips added. “I want him to be in ‘Hangover 4.’ “

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