Joaquin Phoenix has been getting hounded to star in a superhero movie for years, and every time it wasn’t worked out. Could that change with Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker origin movie? Phoenix’s name came up for the role a couple of months ago, but expressed total ignorance when asked about it in a recent interview. Now he’s changed up his tune a little bit, and has decided playing coy is the best way to go.
Speaking with Fandango, Phoenix says the Joker role is “interesting”, but wouldn’t admit that he’s even in negotiations or anything…
“I don’t know… it could be an interesting character, I don’t know”, he said mischievously, or at least the journalist read it as mischievous. Phoenix went on to add…
“I see it as any other movie. I wouldn’t say… “I won’t do Westerns.” It depends on what it is. I don’t really care about the genre, I care about the character and the filmmaker. If you have the ability to transcend the genre, then that’s what you want to do. So I wouldn’t say, hands down, no – I wouldn’t do that kind of movie. There are things where I’ve flirted with the possibility where there was the potential for this to be… something that’s actually interesting to me. But then for whatever reason they never got to that place where everyone else feels the same way. And that’s key. Everyone has to want to explore the same thing or else it just doesn’t f**king work. I’m not opposed to it. I don’t make decisions on budget or things like that – it’s really the filmmaker and the character.”
If this were just your normal everyday Batman movie then certainly Phoenix wouldn’t do it. This is different, however; an origin story that casts Joker as a failed comedian who turns to a life of crime. It’s based loosely on Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, and even boasts Scorsese as a producer. Something tell me the chance to work with Scorsese could be the difference-maker in getting Phoenix to sign on the dotted line.
Next up for Phoenix is his terrific vengeance thriller You Were Never Really Here, followed by Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot which opens this summer.
