Joaquin Phoenix discussed why he was initially afraid to portray the Clown Prince of Crime in Joker.
With Warner Bros. and DC’s Joker set to be screened at the prestigious Venice and Toronto film festivals this year, fans are anticipating an award-worthy performance from Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character. However, Joaquin Phoenix revealed he was initially reluctant to commit to the role of the Joker during an interview with Total Film.
During the conversation, Joaquin Phoenix explained there was some fear in taking on the iconic Joker role. However, Joaquin Phoenix added that a certain type of fear can be motivating, as was the case with Joker:
“There was a lot of fear, yeah. But I always say there’s motivating fear and debilitating fear. There’s the fear where you cannot make a fucking step, and there’s the kind where it’s like, ‘OK, what do we do? That’s not good enough.’ And you’re digging deeper and deeper. I love that kind of fear. It guides us, makes us work harder.”
Total Film also released three new images featuring Joaquin Phoenix and co-star Zazie Beetz in addition to a cover featuring Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck and the Joker. You can check out the new Joker photos and cover below!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1YVUn-lSo4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Do you think Joaquin Phoenix’s performance to the Joker can earn him some award recognition? Sound-off your thoughts in the comments!
Here is the official synopsis for Joker:
Director Todd Phillips “Joker” centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fracturedsociety. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham.
Joker will be released in theaters on October 4, 2019.
Source: Total Film
