Joaquin Phoenix was approached by Christopher Nolan about playing The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’
"My feeling was I shouldn’t do this"
by Max Pilley · NMEJoaquin Phoenix has revealed that he was once approached by Christopher Nolan about playing the Joker in The Dark Knight.
The actor, who went on to win an Oscar for playing the same character in Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker, and returned for its maligned 2024 sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, opened up about his previous close encounter with the Batman villain in a new interview with Rick Rubin.
During an appearance on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, he recalled a meeting with Nolan as the director was preparing to cast the beloved 2008 film.
“I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight and that didn’t happen for whatever reason,” he said. “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. … I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?”
Ledger did end up taking the role, finishing the filming just months before his death at the age of 28 from an accidental overdose as a result of prescription drug abuse. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the role, with he and Phoenix the only actors to win Academy Awards for portraying characters from superhero franchises.
“I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person’,” Phoenix continued. “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.’”
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Joker: Folie à Deux, meanwhile, has endured a tough time at the box office, taking approximately $40million (£30.5million) domestically on its opening weekend, well short of Warner Bros.’ original projections.
Now, just weeks after its cinematic release, the film is looking at a digital home release on November 4, accelerated due to its financial difficulties.
Folie À Deux also became the first Hollywood comic book movie adaptation to earn a ‘D’ score from CinemaScore – even maligned films such as The Marvels or The Flash managed to secure a ‘B’ grade. It is also sitting on a lowly 33 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 32 per cent audience score on the aggregator site.
In a four-star review of Folie à Deux, NME wrote: “As with the original movie, the film looks gorgeous throughout, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher making strong use of colour and conjuring up some beautiful images – highlights include an overhead shot of some umbrellas (referencing Jacques Demy’s 1964 musical The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg) and a stunningly lit frame of Arthur lighting a cigarette in his prison cell that resembles a lovingly illustrated comic book panel.
“In short, Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.”
The Dark Knight, meanwhile, has been included in a recent discussion about the greatest opening scenes in film history.