Joaquin Phoenix
Biography
Born | in San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Birth Name | Joaquin Rafael Bottom |
Nicknames | KittenJoaqLeaf |
Height | 5' 8" (1.73 m) |
Todd Phillips, the director of the upcoming Joker origin film, posted a camera test of Joaquin Phoenix Friday on Instagram. Phoenix plays the infamous villain in the currently untitled movie, which is slated to hit theaters on Oct. 4, 2019.
In the video, Phoenix appears as “Arthur,” until his face is interspersed with images of him as the Joker. The camera gradually pulls in closer and we only see him as the grinning villain, with his signature white face and red lips. The video, set to “Laughing” by the Canadian band The Guess Who, ends when his expression suddenly falls.
Phillips posted a photo on Sunday of Phoenix dressed up in a button-up shirt and jacket, with the caption: “Arthur.” This is likely the Joker’s name before he adopts his current moniker.
In the UK, the March cinema schedule gave us a particularly disconcerting Phoenix double-whammy. One week, he was a taciturn, tortured assassin exacting grievous violence on toxic men in Lynne Ramsay’s brutal stunner You Were Never Really Here. The next, he was literally Jesus Christ – still taciturn, definitely still tortured, but ostensibly a more benevolent presence – in Garth Davis’s prettily soporific religious drama Mary Magdalene. (Or, as atheistic wags might also call it, You Were Never Really Here.) The performances may have had more in common than they would in the hands of most other actors – you’ve never seen the son of God quite this blearily emo – but the ideological whiplash between the projects was still striking. (With Mary Magdalene still mired in Weinstein Company legal quicksand, Americans will find this out when, if ever, it gets released.)