Some of the steps Joaquin Phoenix took to become Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime seem
pretty risky, which is par for the course when you're an actor of his caliber.
But what, exactly, did Phoenix do to prepare for such a disturbing role?
Here's how the celebrated performer transformed himself into the Joker.
Joaquin Phoenix says he didn't study any previous film incarnations of the Joker in preparation,
and that may be technically true.
But there's one silent film he did study that's essentially a Joker origin story.
At the 2019 Venice Film Festival, Joker director Todd Phillips said one of the movies he and
Phoenix found particularly important for Joker prep was the 1928 silent film The Man Who
Laughs.
Based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name, the film is about a man who has been
disfigured with a permanent smile since birth, and becomes a sideshow attraction.
The Man Who Laughs is often cited as the inspiration for the Joker, who premiered in 1940's Batman
#1.
DC comic book writer Grant Morrison, in fact, called the Joker a direct lift from The Man
Who Laughs in his 2011 book Supergods.
He goes so far to say it's a wonder how Joker's creators got away with copying the film.
So in a sense, even though the Jokers of Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson weren't considered
in the creation of Arthur Fleck, you could argue Philips and Phoenix studied every Joker
by skipping them all and going straight to the source.
Philips has been clear he doesn't want anyone to go into Joker thinking they're going to
be seeing the adaptation of a particular comic, or that they should expect much inspiration
from the comics at all.
But there's at least one way Arthur Fleck's character mirrors the Joker of the comics
perhaps more closely than any of the film adaptations we've seen so far.
The Joker is almost always depicted as being very skinny in the comics, sometimes impossibly
so.
According to Phoenix, the first thing he did to prepare for Joker was to lose weight — which
had a welcome side effect.
He said at the Venice Film Festival,
"The first thing for us was the weight loss — I think that's really what I started with
[...] As it turns out, that then affects your psychology.
You start to go mad when you lose that amount of weight in that amount of time."
While The Man Who Laughs came out in 1928, other films influencing Joker came from a
very different era — specifically, the '70s and early '80s.
That probably isn't a surprise.
As soon as the first Joker trailer was released, fans and critics saw the similarities to specific
'70s films, particularly those directed by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese — who
was originally attached as an executive producer for Joker but had to bow out due to conflicting
commitments.
Phillips named 1976's Taxi Driver and 1982's King of Comedy as some of his chief inspirations
for Joker, both of which star Robert De Niro.
King of Comedy, like Joker, follows a failed and mentally ill stand-up comic, played by
De Niro.
In fun house mirror style, De Niro pops up in Joker as an established talk show host
facing a mentally ill comedian of his own.
For other inspirations, Phillips also mentioned 1973's Serpico and 1975's One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest — a highlight in the career of one of the most memorable movie Jokers,
Jack Nicholson.
"How about it, ya creeps! You lunatics mental defectives ”
Films weren't the only media Joaquin Phoenix studied to become the Joker.
At the Venice Film Festival, he mentioned reading a book that broke down the personality
types of political assassins.
We don't know exactly which books he read because he didn't offer specifics, though
one likely candidate might be James W. Clarke's 1990 book On Being Mad or Merely Angry, which
among other things looks at John Hinckley's 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald
Reagan.
Regardless of exactly what Phoenix read, the subject is telling in terms of the departure
from previous incarnations of the Joker.
While the Joker of the comics and other films would likely have few qualms about killing
politicians, it's not his primary focus.
It also speaks to just how strongly the films Phillips mentioned will influence Joker.
Political assassination is very much on Travis Bickle's mind in 1976's Taxi Driver.
And the early '80s setting of Joker places it right around the time Hinckley's own mental
illness drove him to try to assassinate President Reagan.
In Venice, Phoenix talked about how writing a journal for Arthur Fleck helped him begin
to form the character.
He told reporters that Todd Phillips sent him a blank notebook to act as Fleck's journal
and joke diary, saying,
"That was really helpful because I had been there for a couple of weeks and wasn't sure
how I was going to start.
I didn't know what to write, so I asked [Phillips] for some suggestions, and after a few days,
I ignored his suggestions and suddenly it was coming out.
It became a really important part of the discovery of the character."
We may have already gotten a glimpse at Phoenix's journal, or perhaps just a version inspired
by it, in the first Joker trailer.
Phoenix says one of the things that makes his take on the Joker feel so fresh has to
do with his approach to the character as a persona that already exists within Arthur
Fleck just fighting to emerge.
The actor said one of the earliest things he tackled was the madman's infamous laugh.
According to Phoenix, it wasn't easy to nail down.
He told the press in Venice,
"Before I even read the script, Todd came over and talked me through what he wanted
out of this character and this movie […] and he described the laughter as something that
was almost painful [...] Honestly, I didn't think that I could do it.
I would practice alone and then asked Todd to come over to audition my laugh, because
I felt like I had to do it on the spot and in front of somebody else.
It took me a long time."
Reviewing the final trailer with Phoenix's words in mind is interesting.
During his confrontation with Thomas Wayne, you can hear what Phoenix is talking about
as far as the laughter being "almost painful."
"ha."
Earlier, when he laughs loudly and then abruptly stops, it sure sounds like a moment of the
Joker "trying to emerge."
"haha."
See the fruit of Phoenix's twisted labor when Joker hits theaters October 4th, 2019.
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