Sir Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix go way back. The director guided the actor to his first Academy Award nomination when they collaborated on the 2000 film Gladiator. And they are about to rekindle that creative spark when they team to tell the story of Napoleon, which will be out in theaters in November. But while speaking about their upcoming work, Scott referenced Joker, the movie that actually won Phoenix his Oscar, and explained something that he didn’t like about Todd Phillips’s comic-book adaptation.
Joaquin Phoenix stood out as the lead role in a standalone Joker movie. It was sort of an origin story, and featured an adolescent Bruce Wayne. Ridley Scott raved about Phoenix’s performance to Deadline, but in the process, brought up an issue that he had with the DC movie. Said Scott:
I was blown away by his outrageous film Joker. I didn’t like the way it celebrated violence but Joaquin was remarkable. I thought he’d be an amazing asset to Napoleon, [not only creatively] also in a commercial sense. There were only two actors I had in mind for the role. I won’t mention the other one.
It has been four years since Joaquin Phoenix stunned the industry with his spectacular performance as an outsider and loner who finally buckles under the weight of oppression from a cruel city that’s teetering on the brink of madness. To celebrate the original film’s anniversary, Todd Phillips recently shared an image from his highly anticipated follow up film Joker: Folie à Deux. but we have a long way to go before the sequel reaches us in October 2024.
As for Ridley Scott’s critique of Joker, it’s hard to argue with him. The film does, in its own way, celebrate violence, retaliation, and anarchy in the face of injustice. By the end of the film, the spat-upon Arthur Fleck commits murder on live television and encourages the mob to take back the streets, crowning himself their savior, the Clown Prince of Chaos. But is it all a dream? Something that takes place mostly in his vivid imagination? The ending of Joker is left somewhat ambiguous, so maybe we’ll get some clarification when Joker: Folie à Deux opens next year.
The Joker has been an incredibly prolific character on screen, portrayed by Jared Leto in the SnyderVerse, and recently, by Barry Keoghan in Matt Reeves’s The Batman. Joaquin Phoenix’s interpretation of the classic DC villain will tide us over until James Gunn reboots the canon in a slate of upcoming DC movies, starting with Superman: Legacy in 2025. And look for Napoleon in a theater near you starting on November 22.