Rumors began to emerge recently about Joaquin Phoenix being tapped to play the Joker in an upcoming origin film featuring the villain with Todd Phillips directing. Following the emergence of these rumors, The Room star Tommy Wiseau voiced his interest in portraying the villain, with many fans echoing these desires. While speaking with ComicBook.com about the possibility, Wiseau showed excitement about the prospect, yet also admitted that his performing background might not be a good fit for the film.
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“I can’t play the joker, they wanted to do another one, which is probably … Because I don’t want to say negative about actors, but I go by emotion,” Wiseau confessed. “Meaning that my background as stage actor, getting into the emotion, what you can feel through The Room as well, all the progress for what I did. Sometimes they don’t let me, they say ‘Too much emotion.’”
The filmmaker might have acknowledged that his approach to the character might not be what a studio wanted, yet he’d still be thrilled to give audiences his take on the character.
“Definitely, I could play Joker. I think I could do a good job,” Wiseau pointed out. “I mean, I’m into it, very much so. So we see if Hollywood gives me a chance, and they’re respectful. So if they don’t give me chance, maybe another character would somebody pitch to me, to Greg [Sestero], whatever.”
Wiseau’s The Room co-star, Greg Sestero, who wrote the book upon which the Golden Globe-nominated The Disaster Artist was based, admitted to having ideas about an all-new superhero centered around Wiseau.
“I’d like to see you do kind of a different … Create a different a new superhero,” Sestero admitted. “I think Tommy would be great. I started writing a story idea, about a superhero called ‘The Birdman.’ In which Tommy is playing on his backstory, that’s one of the story’s he told me, where he sells toy birds or whatever on Fisherman’s Wharf, and then becoming an underground superhero. And that way in San Francisco I thought just blazing a new path would be an interesting way to go. Instead of, Heath Ledger obviously did the Joker, so maybe coming up with a new superhero.”
Sestero might not have a character picked out for himself, but shared his excitement over the evolution of superhero cinema.
“I think what I’m loving about some of these newer ones like Black Panther, you’re taking these great directors. Like Ryan Coogler who started out doing these art films, and then taking on this bigger budget and putting a story and using the budget to help what you’re trying to say I think is a great way to go on,” Sestero noted. “And I think that people obviously love going to the cinema to see it, but then also putting a message and a heart into the story. So, I think there’s always great superhero movies out there. Some of my favorite stuff was like The Dark Knight films.”
Wiseau wrote, directed, produced, and starred in The Room, running into countless trials and tribulations along the way. The film gained a cult following, with Sestero penning The Disaster Artist to chronicle the film’s bizarre and unbelievable trajectory, which was adapted into the film star James and Dave Franco.
The Disaster Artist hits Blu-ray on March 13th.
Do you think Wiseau would be a good fit for the Joker? Let us know in the comments below!
