As previously reported in the last couple of weeks, Joaquin Phoenix lost a staggering 52 pounds to achieve the physicality and look for his role as the Clown Prince of Crime in Joker.
Now, in a recent press conference at Joker’s Venice Film Festival debut, Phoenix gave a greater insight into how this dramatic weight loss impacted his performance on screen.
“The first thing was the weight loss, that’s really what I started with. As it turns out, that impacts your psychology, and you really start to go mad when you lose that much weight in that amount of time. There’s also a book about political assassins that I thought was interesting, and breaks down the different types of personalities that do those sorts of things [I do in the film].”
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Clearly this isn’t a pleasant or healthy process into transforming into a character, but if Phoenix believed this was his way to bring out the greatest representation of the character he wanted to play and achieve success with this character, then he should be praised.
Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.
Joker is set for release on October 4th 2019 and stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).
Via: CinemaBlend
