Joaquin Phoenix finally dropped his ongoing pretense that he had no idea Todd Phillips was making a movie about The Joker’s origin, he still hasn’t said whether he would seriously consider the lead role.
Several outlets reported in February that the Gladiator star had been offered the lead role in The Joker origin movie and had verbally agreed to join the project. But shortly after that, Phoenix denied that he’d even been approached.
Phoenix has played this game of showing interest and retreating on more than one occasion, so we were unable to confirm his involvement in the DC Films project. However, another source reported that the actor was close to sealing a deal.
In a more recent interview with Fandango, the three-time Academy Award nominee seemingly admitted that he’d participated discussions about The Joker origin movie, but he remained coy about making any commitment:
interesting character; I don't know.
I see it as any other movie. I wouldn't say, "I won't do Westerns." It depends on what it is. I don't really care about the genre, I care about the character and the filmmaker. If you have the ability to transcend the genre, then that's what you want to do. So I wouldn't say, hands down, no, I wouldn't do that kind of movie. There are things where I've flirted with the possibility where there was the potential for this to be"¦something that's actually interesting to me. But then, for whatever reason, they never got to that place where everyone else feels the same way. And that's key. Everyone has to want to explore the same thing or else it just doesn't f**king work. I'm not opposed to it. I don't make decisions on budget or things like that. It's really the filmmaker and the character.
Based on the actor’s remarks, we got the impression that he hasn’t signed on the dotted line. But rumor has it that Phillips plans to start filming in May, so we may not have to wait much longer for an official casting announcement.
