After winning an Oscar for his performance in Todd Phillips’ Joker, Joaquin Phoenix is back in action as the iconic anti-hero in the new sequel Folie À Deux.
The new sequel pairs Joaquin with Lady Gaga, who puts her own unique spin on another Batman villain, Harley Quinn, with both stars performing big numbers in the musical follow-up.
While Folie À Deux itself has pretty much baffled critics, its two leads have both received a wave of praise for their performances in the film.
Interestingly, though, reports that came out when Joker was still in its infancy suggested that studio bosses had their eye on another A-lister for the part before Joaquin was cast.
Way back in 2017, when the Joker project was first revealed to be in the works, Martin Scorsese – whose work heavily inspired the Oscar-winning film – was heavily rumoured to be attached as a producer.
At the time, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Warner Bros. bosses were hoping that his presence could help tempt Leonardo DiCaprio into taking on the part, fresh from his win at the Academy Awards for The Revenant.
For his part, though, director Todd Phillips only ever had one star in mind for the part, telling the New York Times in 2019: “We wrote the movie for Joaquin.”
That same New York Times piece revealed that Joaquin did take some convincing to say yes, having previously backed out of talks to play Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a role which would ultimately go to Benedict Cumberbatch.
It was also revealed that he and director Todd Phillips initially disagreed over one key aspect of the character’s appearance.
Apparently, Todd was keen for Joaquin to lose a dramatic amount of weight for the role, while the Walk The Line star – who had previously done so for previous parts and described it as a “horrible way to live” – wanted his Joker to be “kind of heavy”.
Joker: Folie À Deux is in cinemas now.