Joker Filming Schedule Made Joaquin Phoenix Angry

Days after videos surfaced of star Joaquin Phoenix berating a crew member on the set of Joker, the actor took to a podcast to rant about the production schedule the studio had given him for the film. On a recent episode of CinemaBlend's ReelBlend, the actor voiced his frustrations about a haphazard schedule that caused him to play the iconic Batman villain in between filming his Arthur Fleck scenes, something that made him "really angry" and eventually caused a sit-down with director Todd Phillips.

"Then what happened is the sixth week of shooting was the first time that I played Joker," Phoenix recalls. "I was really angry about that because I thought that it should wait until the end, and I didn't want to kind of shoot it in the middle, but for several reasons we had to."

Phoenix then went on to explain the Joker scenes took four days to film before moving on to the scene where Fleck confronts Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), something the actor says was a weird transition and something he struggled getting acclimated to.

"After that—after playing Joker—I just suddenly realized, Todd and I got together and we talked about everything we shot, and I just said, 'I think that we've been missing something, and I feel like we're going down a road that seems wrong in both the look, the hair is wrong, the way I'm wearing the wardrobe is wrong, and a lot of the behavior,'" Phoenix says.

"It was a really crazy time, but I became so grateful and thankful we shot [the] Joker [scenes] when we did, because exploring that side of the character really allowed me to see this other side," he continues. "There are just some things that you can't anticipate, and I think especially with this character it's just alive in a way that other characters aren't, and you can't put your finger on it. It was a wild process. I've never experienced anything quite like that."

Joker has made a killing at the box office through Thursday, breaking Venom's previous preview night record. Latest tracking suggests the movie could end up grossing north of $90 million domestically this weekend.

Joker is now in theaters. Upcoming DC Movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.

Have you seen Joker yet? Let us know your thoughts of the movie in the comments!