Los Angeles:
Joaquin Phoenix, whose is all prepped for his next outing in and as ‘Joker’, revealed that with the film he “wanted the freedom to create something that wasn’t identifiable”.
The actor was determined to bring out something new, unique and didn’t let himself be influenced by any of the previous versions of the iconic character.
“What was so attractive about this character for me is he’s so hard to define. You don’t really want to define him,” Variety quoted the actor as saying on Saturday during the film’s press conference at the Venice Film Festival.
“Every day felt like we were discovering new aspects of his character…up until the very last day,” he shared further.
The upcoming feature will show Phoenix playing Arthur Fleck, a failed comedian whose professional and personal failures turn him into a villain of a corrupt Gotham City.
No doubt the role demanded great efforts and Phoenix said that he even read a book on political assassins in order to get a sense of such murderers.
Talking about his character, he added, “I did identify Arthur as a particular personality, a particular type.”
“I also wanted the freedom to create something that wasn’t identifiable. This is a fictional character. I didn’t want a psychiatrist to be able to identify the kind of person he was….Let’s step away from that, and we want to have the room to create what we want,” he added.
Late actor Heath Ledger also has essayed Joker in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ but Phoenix said that it didn’t influence him.
“I didn’t refer to any past iteration of the character,” he said. “It just felt like something that was our creation in some ways,” he explained.
The upcoming film has veteran actor Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Marc Maron in the cast. Helmed by Todd Phillips and co-written by Phillips and Scott Silver, the film will hit theatres on October 4 this year.
It will also be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
