Joaquin Phoenix Reveals ‘I Talked to Christopher Nolan’ About Playing the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight,’ but ‘I Wasn’t Ready Then’

Joaquin Phoenix revealed for the first time during a recent interview on “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin” that he was approached to play the Joker by Christopher Nolan for 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” which famously starred Heath Ledger as the Crime Prince of Gotham. Phoenix admitted that he just wasn’t ready to play the Batman villain when Nolan was developing “The Dark Knight.”

“I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about ‘The Dark Knight’ and that didn’t happen for whatever reason,” Phoenix 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?”

Related Stories

VIP+

Latest Music Licensing Deals Underscore Social Media Giants’ Frenemy Status

DR Sales Boards Family Crime Mystery ‘Generations’, DR Drama’s New Flagship Series After ‘Prisoner’ (EXCLUSIVE)

“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,” Phoenix added. “My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s not the guy.'”

Ledger’s critically acclaimed performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” posthumously won him the Oscar for best supporting actor. Phoenix would finally be ready to play the Joker for director Todd Phillips in 2019’s “Joker,” which won him the Oscar for best actor. The film was a box office hit with more than $1 billion worldwide and spawned a sequel, this year’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. But the sequel bombed with critics and audiences and has only earned $57 million at the domestic box office since opening Oct. 4 in theaters. The sequel’s worldwide total stands at $201 million so far.

A recent report from THR claimed that Nolan had an impact on the original “Joker” movie by allegedly blocking Phillips’ idea to have the film end with Phoenix’s Joker carving a smile into his face. Facial scars are the iconic look of Ledger’s Joker from “The Dark Knight,” so Nolan reportedly didn’t want that repeated by Phoenix. However, “Folie à Deux” ends with a character carving a smile into his face, which Phillips was allegedly allowed to do now that Nolan is no longer in business with Warner Bros.

Listen to Phoenix’s full interview on “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin” in the video below.