‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ Star Joaquin Phoenix Claims He Was Considered For The Character In ‘The Dark Knight’ By Christopher Nolan
Few actors could have replaced Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, and even fewer had a chance to be The Joker. That doesn’t mean there weren’t others in the running, though. Adrien Brody was reportedly interested and Jack Nicholson was rather disappointed he didn’t get to play The Clown Prince of Crime again. Still, a contemporary Joker is now saying he was in talks.
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Joaquin Phoenix has been linked to the Batman cinematic multiverse longer than most people remember. At first, he was almost Batman in a top-to-bottom reinterpretation directed by Darren Aronofsky. That project went nowhere and evolved into Batman Begins in the mid-2000s. Christopher Nolan successfully rebooted the character and earned control over a trilogy.
When production on TDK rolled around, it was time to add The Jester of Genocide to the mix, and Ledger was Nolan’s favorite to play him. The director even had him in mind while he was writing the script with his brother Jonathan and David Goyer. However, the often intellectually overstuffed filmmaker may have gauged the interest of other actors.
At least, that’s what Joaquin Phoenix would have us believe in a recent interview. Talking with record producer Rick Rubin on his Tetragrammaton podcast Phoenix said he spoke with Nolan about the role, but the conversation didn’t go very far.
However, with the benefit of hindsight, the actor understands the timing wasn’t right. “I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight and that didn’t happen for whatever reason,” he began.
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“I wasn’t ready then. That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s not doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else. There’s another person who is going to do something,” Phoenix added. ‘’I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?”
Of meeting Nolan, he explained, “I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person.’ I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know we met. My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s not the guy.’”
Phoenix wouldn’t be the guy at that point but he would win an Oscar for portraying the Arthur Fleck Joker over a decade after Ledger’s posthumous win. However, his act turned stale as he and Todd Phillips could not repeat the box office success of the first film with Folie a Deux.
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