Joaquin Phoenix says he probably won't play Joker again
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Marvel/DC
peter1221 — 1 year ago(November 03, 2024 01:16 PM)
Due to the toll it takes on his body to get as thin as he does for the role.
https://www.slashfilm.com/1656885/joaquin-phoenix-will-likely-never-play-the-joker-again-reason/
If Joaquin Phoenix's comedic killer Arthur Fleck returns to screens after "Joker: Folie à Deux," he'll almost certainly need to put on a few pounds. The new film from Todd Phillips only just premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and in a press conference (via Variety), Phoenix explained that the body transformation required to play The Joker was "difficult" but "safe." Presumably answering a question from a member of the press who was concerned about his emaciated on-screen appearance, Phoenix replied: "You're right. I'm now 49, I probably shouldn't do this again. This is probably it for me."
While the actor shared the details of his transformation process after the first film wrapped, he was careful not to go too in-depth at today's press event — a smart choice given that mentioning numbers and methods involved in extreme dieting can impact others recovering from eating disorders. "I'm not going to talk through specifics of the diet, because I just think nobody wants to hear that," Phoenix said, giving a rather self-deprecating reason for staying mum about details like the number of pounds he lost. "It just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost," he explained. "By the end of that run I was so sick of myself and angry at myself for making such a big deal about that part."
Still, Phoenix conceded that an added level of physicality required for "Joker: Folie à Deux" made the transformation trickier. "But this time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn't have last time, so it felt a bit more difficult, but it is safe." That's when Phoenix said he probably wouldn't put his body through the rigamarole again — an understandable sentiment that's been shared by other actors in the past. In 2017, Tom Hardy spoke to The Daily Beast about his long history of grueling physical transformations for the sake of a role, saying, "I think you pay the price with any drastic physical changes."
Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 