Kevin Smith Reacts to Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker

Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the Joker is expected to take the world of DC Films into an entirely new direction, and it looks like Kevin Smith is more than on board with that.

During a recent episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast, Smith and his cohost Marc Bernardin spoke about Joker, and particularly about the official test footage that was released from the film’s director, Todd Phillips. As Smith put it, he is

“He’s a great actor.” Smith explained. “I’ll watch him do anything. Seeing him take on this role, I’ve been curious from the jump. But I’m also of the belief that you could make a bunch of these. You could make six Joker movies, I’ll see all of them. Half of them will probably be really good. So, you know, they’re not planning that, but they were talking about making this one and the Jared Leto one. It feels like the Jared Leto one quietly goes away, based on this one.”

Smith has expressed a similar sort of sentiment in the past about DC’s multiple Joker movies, even as it’s unclear what the status of Leto’s movie currently is. With regards to the Joker test footage, which publicly showed Phoenix in the iconic clown makeup for the very first time, Smith argued that it was a good idea to get out ahead of the unofficial set photos that have been released for the film.

“They’re shooting out in the real world – wherever that is, apparently in the Bronx.” Smith explained. “And when you do that, that’s that, because everyone’s got a phone camera in their hands at all given times, and whatnot. So even a non-professional person walking past like ‘Oh shit, there’s a camera! Oh shit, there’s a clown! Oh shit, it’s The Joker!’ Bam! You’re going to have it spoiled like crazy. So in an effort to combat it or – since images are getting out there – Todd Phillips, the director of the movie, has stated ‘Look, all the paparazzi are putting out bad pictures? At least I’m going to put out good pictures. If the image is going to be out there, let me share good versions of this.’”

“So because of that, we’re seeing an unprecedented amount of material on this movie while they’re in the earliest stages of production, including the look of the Joker, [which is] something that nobody every really saw on The Dark Knight until very close to the first trailer.” Smith continued. “Like there was no very early image of Heath Ledger out there in the world. So it’s crazy, but at the same time, it does fuel interest. What do you think about the direction that they’ve taken with it so far? It looks like, you can’t say for sure that you’ve seen the be all, end all of the character, because they keep doing iterations of him in clown makeup.”

“I still am not certain that this movie needs to exist,” Bernardin replied. “But like, the more I see, the more curious I am.”

“Yeah, it’s like Batman’s dick.” Smith joked, referencing the recent Batman: Damned controversy. “You just wanna know more.”

Do you agree with Smith’s comments about Phoenix’s Joker? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.