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Joaquin Phoenix has opened up about his dramatic weight loss for Joker 2, explaining why he won’t be doing it again.
The actor returns as Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips’s movie musical-of-sorts, which sees Lady Gaga join the cast as Harley Quinn.
After a busy week at the Venice Film Festival, which has seen premieres for Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and an epic being called “the next Godfather”, Joker: Folie à Deux debuted on Wednesday (4 September), following which Phoenix, Gaga and Phillips attended a press conference.
One journalist asked Phoenix about his weight loss for the film, which he said was more “complicated” than it had been with the 2019 original.
For the first Joker, Phoenix lost 52 pounds to achieve the lead character’s gaunt look and achieved this by eating a diet mainly consisting of steamed vegetables and lettuce.
Phoenix was hesitant to reveal specific details about his diet this time around, telling reporters: “I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet.”
However, he did say it “felt a bit more complicated” losing weight for the sequel “as there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time”.
He then said, as per Variety: “I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me.”
Phoenix also expressed frustration with the interest in his physical transformation, stating: “I know I was responsible last time for talking about it, but it’s difficult to do so that becomes your obsession because you’re working the entire time to get to a certain weight.
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“So then you end up talking about it, and then it just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost. By the end of that run, I was so sick of myself and angry at myself for making such a big deal about that part, because you just do what you’re f***ing supposed to do. So this time I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.’”
During the press conference, Phoenix was also asked about quitting Todd Haynes’s gay romance film days before it was due to shoot – a revelation that put a complete end to the production.
When asked if he could reveal why he quit the project, the actor told reporters: “If I do, I’d just be sharing my opinion from my perspective and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, and so I don’t think that would be helpful.”
Joker: Folie à Deux will be released on 4 October.
