5 Things To Know About Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Joker’

Author: Dani Di Placido / Source: Forbes

We finally got

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No “damaged” tattoo, at least. But if you haven’t been following the news, you might be wondering what the deal is with the DCEU, where Phoenix fits into it, and more.

Here are 5 things to know about the newest incarnation of the Joker.

Phoenix has been wanting to do this movie for years

From the outset, it would appear as though Joker was pushed into production the second the public realized how bad Suicide Squad was, but apparently, Joaquin Phoenix has always wanted to play this part, or at least, something similar, as he revealed in a recent interview with comicbook.com.

Three or four years ago, I called my agent and said ‘Why don’t they want to take one of these characters and just make a lower budget film about it, a movie but a character study, and why not take one of the villains?

And I thought, ‘You can’t do the Joker, because, you know, it’s just you can’t do that character, it’s just been done.’ So I was trying to think of other characters, and he said ‘I’ll set up a general meeting with Warner Bros.’ And I said ‘I’m not gonna go, I can’t go to a general meeting.’ So I completely forgot about it, and so then I heard about this idea, I was like, ‘Oh that’s so exciting, that’s the kind of experience I wanted to have, with a movie based on a comic character.’ I felt like you could get something on screen.

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Batman has an extremely interesting villains gallery, because the majority of his antagonists aren’t really traditional supervillains, but outright lunatics; that’s why they lock them inside Arkham Asylum. Choosing one for a small-scale character study makes a lot of sense, and it’s telling that Phoenix’s first thought was the Joker, even if he initially rejected the idea.

Ledger’s iconic performance made the world sit up and take superhero movies seriously, and we’re still seeing elements of his influence, in chaotic/controlling villains like Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luther, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan.

Now, it’s Phoenix’s turn to make an impression.

We still don’t know what his final appearance will be

Phoenix’s traditional clown makeup is deliberately evocative; of Caesar Romano, John Wayne Gacy, perhaps a touch of Tim Curry’s Pennywise.

But as unsettling as the new look is, it’s not actually the final design, but merely

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, shot before Phoenix even won the role. It does have a lot to tell us, regardless, as the makeup is a world away from the traditional, comic book visualization of the Joker, and more like an unhinged circus clown.

There’s already an emphasis on realism, which only adds to the creep factor; the grease paint of the…

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