Joaquin Phoenix Reveals He Was In Talks To Play Joker In Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight

Joaquin Phoenix says Christopher lan h reached out to him to play Joker in his 2008 film " Dark Knight" but actor "wasn't rey" to play Batman supervillain n.

Heath Ledger eventually played Joker opposite Christian Bale as Dark Knight in second movie of lan's Batman trilogy. Ledger, who died six months before release of film, won Best Supporting Actor Oscar posthumously for his stellar performance.

In 2020, Phoenix bagged a Best Actor Oscar for playing titular character in Todd Phillips' film "Joker", an origin story of DC antagonist that went on to become a blockbuster.

"I remember I talked to Chris lan about ‘ Dark Knight’ and that didn’t happen for whatever reason. I wasn’t rey n. That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s t doing this?’ And it’s t about me. re’s something else. re’s ar person who is going to do something. … I can’t imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?" actor told Rick Rubin on "Tetragrammaton" podcast.

"I don’t kw wher Christopher lan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely person.’ I can’t remember context of how we met, but I kw we met. My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s t guy'," he ded.

Phoenix recently reprised his role of Joker in "Joker: Folie a Deux". musical psychological thriller is Phillips' follow-up to 2019's "Joker" and also stars Ly Gaga.

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