The remarkable ‘Joker’ moment that Joaquin Phoenix improvised
For a long time, Joaquin Phoenix resisted all approaches made to him by the comic book genre, only to win an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ when he finally took the plunge.
Darren Aronofsky wanted the star to be his Bruce Wayne when he was developing a grounded and gritty reboot Batman: Year One in the early 2000s, while he was deep in negotiations with Marvel Studios to headline Doctor Strange, although his explanation for “how to say this most diplomatically” was simply to state that “all parties were satisfied” with the fact he didn’t end up signing on the dotted line.
Of course, Todd Phillips’ Joker is hardly a conventional comic book adaptation, despite taking place in the very familiar surroundings of Gotham City, featuring one of the most iconic villains in all of pop culture as its central character, and packing in cameo appearances from Alfred Pennyworth and a young Bruce Wayne.
In fact, Phillips’ approach was so subversive that he had to fight hard to get it made in the first place, with Warner Bros initially resisting his attempts to mount an inexpensive, adult-skewing movie set in such a well-known and recognisable universe. Naturally, minds were changed when it cleared a billion dollars at the box office, became the highest-grossing R-rated release in history, and scooped two Oscars from 11 nominations.
Phoenix committed himself entirely to the part of Arthur Fleck, and the freedom of expression granted to him by Phillips led to several of Joker’s most memorable moments. One bout of improvisation may have ended up doing more harm than good in the long run, though, with the leading man going off-script, leaving the director growing concerned his star had shattered his hand.
As co-star Leigh Gill shared on Tattoo Talk with Gordon James, “The scene where he has been fired and I’m in the locker room with him, and he packed up his stuff, and he goes out, and then he comes back and punches the clock off the wall, that wasn’t scripted”. The scene was simply supposed to end, but Phoenix had other ideas.
“So he walked out, and we’re waiting for Todd to say cut, and Joaquin walks back in and added in the bit where, like, ‘I forgot to punch out’,” Gill continued. “And he just starts lamping this metal clock off the wall. Out of nowhere. The sound was so fucking loud.”
According to his scene partner, “he had to punch it about 20 times before it came off”, with Phillips convinced the star’s hand had to be broken.
That was far from the only moment of inspired improvisation Phoenix brought to the table in Joker, and it’s reasonable to expect he’s done the same second time around, even if upcoming sequel Folie à Deux has been teased as more of a musical fantasy.
