A famous, homicidal clown once said that he thought his life was a tragedy, but then he realized it was a comedy … and we’re starting to think he was onto something. Joaquin Phoenix’s two “Joker” movies stand alone as some of the weirdest and most unusual comic book movies of the last several decades, not least of all because of how audiences have responded to both of director Todd Phillips’ efforts. 2019’s “Joker” beat all expectations and became one of the most successful R-rated movies of all time. Five years later, though, the sequel “Joker: Folie à Deux” fared significantly worse, demolished by weeks of negative word of mouth (/Film’s review by Bill Bria being a notable exception) before ending up rejected by most audiences once it hit theaters worldwide.
But as unpredictable as it was that Phoenix (who once came so close to being cast as Doctor Strange) ended up playing the Clown Prince of Crime, how would we have reacted if he’d ended up as a very different version of the Joker in another superhero blockbuster instead? That movie could very well have been Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” according to none other than Joaquin Phoenix himself. The shocking news comes straight from the clown’s own mouth in an appearance on Rick Rubin’s “Tetragrammaton” podcast. While talking about the circumstances in which Phillips cast Phoenix as the character Arthur Fleck and why he felt he was the right one for the role, the actor dropped a bit of a bombshell out of nowhere. As he explained:
“Actually, I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about ‘The Dark Knight’ and that wasn’t going to happen for whatever reason — I think I wasn’t ready then.”
Joaquin Phoenix could’ve played the Joker much earlier than he did
For years, fans have imagined how Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck might’ve looked alongside several live-action Batmans (Batmen?) from the recent past, from Christian Bale’s version in “The Dark Knight” to Ben Affleck in Zack Snyder’s DC movies all the way to Robert Pattinson in “The Batman.” Well, one of those hypotheticals very well could’ve come to pass had director Christopher Nolan decided to go down one very interesting path. So why didn’t he? To hear Phoenix tell it, the timing wasn’t quite right and, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps the film gods simply had other plans. After admitting that he wasn’t “ready” at that time, the “Joker” star heaped praise on Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the unforgettable villain in the 2008 film:
“I can’t imagine what it’d be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film. And I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You are definitely the person.’ I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know that we met and my feeling was, ‘I shouldn’t do this.’ But maybe he also was like, ‘You’re not the guy.’ I couldn’t say.”
When pressed by Rick Rubin that it ultimately worked out for the best, considering the juggernaut that “The Dark Knight” turned into while Phoenix eventually got his shot at similar glory with the 2019 “Joker” and its sequel, Phoenix responded in the affirmative: “Absolutely.” Still, it’s utterly wild to imagine the notoriously finnicky actor working with Nolan (not to mention the similarly volatile Bale) on “The Dark Knight.” This isn’t quite on the level of Phoenix dropping out of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” at the 11th hour, but we can safely add this to the laundry list of what-if scenarios that the A-lister has been involved with over the decades.
