Joaquin Phoenix donned his best clown makeup to play the iconic DC villain in 2019’s Joker. Yet Phoenix could have played the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight.
In a recent appearance on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, Phoenix revealed that he spoke with Nolan about playing the Joker in The Dark Knight.
“I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight, and that didn’t happen for whatever reason,” Phoenix said. “I wasn’t ready then. That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s not doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else. There’s another person who is going to do something.”
The other person turned out to be the late Heath Ledger, whose Oscar-winning performance as the Joker remains one of the greatest comic book portrayals in a movie. Even Phoenix can’t deny Ledger’s greatness.
Phoenix added, “I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?”
“I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person,’” Phoenix continued. “I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know we met. My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s not the guy.’”
It worked out for Phoenix in the long run, as he won an Oscar for his role as Arthur Fleck in 2019’s Joker, which became an international hit, grossing over $1 billion worldwide. Joker was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time until Deadpool & Wolverine surpassed it this summer.
Phoenix reprised his Oscar-winning role in Joker: Folie à Deux. The sequel was critically panned and rejected by most audiences. Joker: Folie à Deux has grossed $201 million worldwide on a rumored budget of $190 million. The film is projected to lose $150 to $200 million for Warner Bros.
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