Joaquin Phoenix, the star of Joker, has revealed that he auditioned the character’s iconic laugh.
One of the most iconic sounds in film and TV is the Joker’s laugh and every actor has had their slightly different take on it. Nailing the laugh is a big part of making the character your own and this is why Joaquin Phoenix was so invested in getting his right for Joker.
Even though Todd Phillips had already given him the role, Phoenix has revealed to Screen Rant that he requested that he audition his laugh for the director – just to see if he could get it right. Explaining how he found his laugh, Phoenix said: “Well, really… Do you remember that I basically just auditioned myself?” he said to Todd Phillips.
“I had you come over to audition the laugh, because I didn’t think I could do it. Because you showed me some videos, right? You showed me some videos of some laughs, and I thought, ‘That’s really good.’ And in the script, it described the laugh being almost painful, and it thought it was a really interesting way to describe laughter. So, I just kind of, I don’t know… You came into my house; I tried. And it was really uncomfortable, because I spent five minutes trying to work it out. Finally, you said, ‘You don’t have to do this.’
Todd Phillips recollected: “You already have the part.”
Phoenix then continued: “And I said, ‘No,I have to do this.’ Because if I don’t do this, if I can’t force myself to find it now, then forever I’m going to fucking puss out. So we did.”
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It’s fun to hear how much emphasis the actor put on getting this particular part of the character just right. It will be interesting to see how fans respond to his performance as a whole when the movie comes out in October.
Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.
Joker is set for release on October 4th 2019 and stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).
