Joaquin Phoenix Has Gotten Thinner for ‘Joker’ Role

Filming is getting ready to begin on The Joker, the new self-contained DC Comics movie exploring the origin of Batman’s greatest villain. And it looks like the film’s star is ready for duty.

New photos of Joaquin Phoenix cropped up, showing the actor looking skinnier for his role as the younger Clown Prince of Crime in the new movie from director Todd Phillips. Check it out in the photo below.

Given all of Warner Bros. announcements for future DC Comics-based movies, news of the Joker origin movie seemed very unlikely to ever come to fruition when it was first revealed. But now the cameras are set to start rolling, making in the only other DC project in production other than Wonder Woman 1984.

But the movie did hit a major snag this week. On Monday it was announced that Alec Baldwin was joining the film, heavily rumored to be playing Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne. But after reports surfaced that this iteration of the character was inspired by Donald Trump, Baldwin abruptly left the project just two days later.

“I’m no longer doing that movie,” Baldwin told USA Today, blaming “scheduling” issues. He then added that he’s “sure there are 25 guys who can play that part.”

While it might seem that the part of the Joker would be beneath an actor with the calibre of Phoenix, we shouldn’t forget that the role earned Heath Ledger a post-humous Academy Award for his participation in The Dark Knight.

And to his own credit, Phoenix has been trying to play this role for a few years now, per an interview with Collider.

“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?’” Phoenix previously said. “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,” he added.

The Joker is scheduled to premiere in theaters on Oct. 4, 2019.