JOKER Stars Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro Clashed Over a Read-Through Before Shooting
There’s no doubt that working with Joaquin Phoenix on Joker was an intense experience for everyone involved. Just watching his performance, you can see he completely lost himself in the role. Then you watch his award acceptance speeches and interveiws and you get a sense of what his personality is like and I imagine he’s not an easy guy to work with.
During a recent interview with GQ, director Todd Phillips shared a story of over a big disagreement that Phoenix and Robert De Niro had over how they wanted to prepare for the film before shooting. While Phoenix is a huge fan of De Niro and was thrilled that he joined the film, there was one thing he did not want to do with him, and that was to do a read-through before shooting.
Phoenix isn’t a fan of rehearsing, he’s the kind of actor that just wants to jump into the experience not feeling secure and trying to use that “pure anxiety” in the performance he delivers. De Niro, on the other hand, demands that they rehearse and do a read-through. He told Phillips:
“Tell him he’s an actor and he’s got to be there. I like to hear the whole movie and we’re going to all get in a room and just read it.”
Phoenix, however, was stubborn about it and did not want to do it, telling Phillips:
“There’s no fucking way I’m doing a read-through.”
It’s just not the way he likes to do things, but regardless, Phillips ended up talking him into meeting with De Niro to do it. When they met at De Niro's company offices for the read-through, it’s explained that he wasn't invested, and even mumbled through parts of the dialogue. At one point he went off to a corner of the room to smoke. He’s kind of acting like a little kid grudgingly doing something his parents demanded him to do.
De Niro then invited him to his office to talk about all, and while Phoenix wasn't interested at first, Phillips eventually got him to go meet with him and clear the air.
When they met things worked out fine, and De Niro took Phoenix's face into his hands and kissed him on the cheek, saying “It’s going to be OK, bubbeleh."
In the end, everything worked out and the movie ended up being the mega-hit that no one expected it to be.