Joaquin Phoenix Talks The Joker

By Reggie's Take on April 22, 2018

In a recent online interview Joaquin Phoenix talked about a wide range of topics, one of course being the Joker. What exactly did he have to say about the Clown Prince of crime and is he interested in Martin Scorsese film?

In late 2017 Warner Brothers announced that Martin Scorsese would be producing an origin story for one of the great villains ever to come from the comics, the Joker. The new movie would be a stand-alone movie or a one-off if it were a comic book about how the Joker came to be set in the 1980’s. Ever since that announcement we have all wondered who might dawn the clown make-up?

In early February (2018), Joaquin Phoenix’s name came up and has since become the supposed front runner for the role despite no official announcement from Warner Brothers or Joaquin Phoenix himself confirming if he was indeed up for the part.

During a recent online interview Joaquin Phoenix was asked about possibly being in a one-off superhero movie about the origins of the Joker and if there was any truth to it?

“I don’t know really. I don’t know.”

Heath Ledger and Jared Leto are the last two actors to take on the role of the Joker on the big-screen. Joaquin Phoenix was asked about how an actor could be intimidated or even compared to another performance that is looked at as iconic like Heath Ledger’s in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

“I don’t know about that movie or character specifically, but I was thinking about it’s interesting with comics. We were talking, there’s different writers and artists that come on.

It’s different than this character from literature being uniquely that. There are different interpretations. It’s so interesting; I was just thinking about it today, it seems so unique in some ways to comic books. I think there’s probably room for that. Maybe it’s like doing a play, like you always hear about people doing something, “You should have seen this actor in this performance,” but then other actors do it and it’s a different kind of film. I think that genre, comic books, kind of lends itself to having different people play the same character and interpret it in a different way. It’s kind of built into the source material in some ways. I think it’s cool when people do that.”

Reggie’s Take:
If your like me then your left with knowing no more now after the interview then we did before the interview. Will Joaquin Phoenix be the next actor to take on the role of the Joker? If I’m to be honest it really doesn’t matter to me.

Would Joaquin Phoenix make an excellent Joker? Of course he could, but then again any good actor with the right script could also be a good Joker. After reading his answers I’ve come to one of two conclusions. The first one being is he really doesn’t know anything about the role and was being totally honest in his answers. The second answer being, he has been in talks for the role and either won’t or can not disclose where those talks have lead or the results of those talks.

As a movie buff I loved Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker and for many it will always be the pinnacle performance of the character. As for Jared Leto’s Joker we saw in Suicide Squad, I personally needed to see him in more of the role to make an honest assessment on his interoperation.

For now the Martin Scorsese produced Joker movie does not have a release date and knowing how wishy washy Warner Brothers and DC can be concerning there comic book properties as of late I’m not going to get worked up about if Joaquin Phoenix is or is not playing the Joker.

If you would like to read more on the interview with Joaquin Phoenix and what else he had to say head over to Collider.