Joker Movie: 20 Facts You Need To Know

Directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, the R-rated Joker origin story is already the most controversial movie of the year.

Here are some interesting facts about the Joker movie.

1. The Joker movie cracked the IMDB’s ‘Top 10 Highest-Rated Movies Of All Time’ List

Todd Phillips’ movie is currently sitting in the No. 10 slot, behind classic titles such as The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and the first two Godfather movies.

2. Joker was produced on budget of $55 million, significantly below the budgets of other comic book-based movies.

That was by design, as director Todd Phillips pitched Joker as something completely different than the standard comic book movie fare. The R-rated Joker is closer in spirit and substance to gritty cinematic portraits of antiheroes from the 1970s than your typical modern comic-book movie.

3. The character of Arthur Fleck was scripted with Joaquin Phoenix in mind.

The director conceived an origin story for the Joker as a “for-hire party clown and mentally ill loner in a late ’70s/early ’80s Gotham.” Phillips scripted the character with Phoenix in mind, and gave him the script back in 2017. The actor “queried Phillips endlessly”, and also had his mother examine the script before deciding to sign on.

4. Phoenix went on an extreme diet for the Joker movie and lost 52 pounds.

Phoenix’s weight loss was so significant that it actually limited the potential for reshoots after the production completed filming.

5. Joaquin Phoenix based his Joker laugh on “videos of people suffering from pathological laughter.”

In an interview with Italian publication Il Vernerdi, Phoenix revealed that he based some of his Joker’s tics from people suffering from pathological laughter. “I saw videos showing people suffering from pathological laughter, a mental illness that makes mimicry uncontrollable,” he said. This disorder is very much real. You can read more about it here.

6. Phoenix did not refer to any past iterations of the character when developing his role.

“The attraction to make this film and this character was that we were going to approach it in our own way, so, for me, I didn’t refer to any past iterations of the character,” he explained at the Venice Film Festival press conference. “It was just something that felt like our creation, and that’s what was really important for me.”

7. While preparing for the role, Phoenix studied the movements of silent film stars and the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.

To develop his character, the actor studied the movements of silent film stars and Ray Bolger’s scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, which inspired the “highly creepy dance that so acutely expresses Fleck’s private madness.”

8. Late ’70s and early ’80s “character study” films served as major influences on the Joker.

Todd Phillips referred to films like Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, Serpico, Raging Bull, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Venice Film Festival as particular influences.

9. Phillips set the Joker movie in the early 1980s to ensure it has nothing to do with the rest of the DC Extended Universe.

By having Joker set before the current events, Phillips wanted to make sure that fans are able to enjoy the capsulated story, free of concern about DC crossovers and serialized storytelling.

10. The Joker movie storyline about a failed stand-up comedian came from the Batman: The Killing Joke graphic novel.

Alan Moore’s classic 1988 story, Batman: The Killing Joke, was a key inspiration for the Joker screenplay that depicted the character as a failed comedian.

11. And the silent film The Man Who Laughs was also another major influence on the Joker movie.

Co-writer Scott Silver was inspired by one of the earliest scary clown movies, The Man Who Laughs, released in 1928.

12. Arthur’s clown makeup was purposefully made to look “antique”, and his lips were made a reddish-brown to resemble blood.

Makeup artist Nicki Ledermann was tasked with creating a look that would distinguish Phoenix’s character from all the past Jokers. She said that “even his slanted smile is a metaphor that everything is not perfect. Maybe it’s funny – maybe it’s not.”

13. The script often changed right before shooting, and the actors had to adapt and even improvise their dialogue.

According to Phillips, Zazie Beets’ character Sophie got the most “messed” with between writing and actually shooting. He complimented Beets saying she was amazing and “so down for that kind of improvisation, it never phased her, she was enthusiastic about the changes, she helped with dialogue for her character, it was a beautiful collaboration.”

14. There are three different Joker laughs in the film: the “affliction” laugh, the “one of the guys” laugh, and then the “authentic joy” laugh at the end.

Phillips detailed how there are actually three different Joker laughs in the film, but the one he said was the most difficult for Phoenix to find was the “the affliction laugh.” The director described it to Phoenix as “something that is almost painful, part of him that’s trying to emerge.”

15. Although Robert DeNiro is one Phoenix’s favorite actors, the two hardly talked on set.

Part of this was due to their similar acting methods.

16. In fact, there was a little awkward tension between De Niro and Phoenix.

This was because De Niro insisted the whole cast do a read-through before filming his scenes, while Phoenix did not want to do that. Fortunately, the two came to a friendly agreement and worked it all out.

17. Phillips asked composer Hildur Guðnadóttir to start writing music off the script, which is not usually done in movies.

Internet world, it's out!! After living with Joker for over a year and half, his music is finally ready come out and meet you! From the bottom of my heart I´d like to thank everyone who lent their talents to this music, It takes a village to complete a project of this size! pic.twitter.com/1eX8q3WCbJ

— Hildur Gudnadottir (@hildurness) October 3, 2019

Guðnadóttir worked on the Joker music alongside the score for the drama miniseries Chernobyl. She said switching between the two was challenging because the scores were so different.

18. And Guðnadóttir’s music was often played on set of the Joker movie to help set the mood.

The actress Zazie Beets said her music was a nice “tonal motivation for what you were doing.”

19. In fact, thanks to her music, Phoenix improvised the bathroom dancing scene on the spot.

In the script, Arthur simply runs into the bathroom, hides the gun, and washes his face. Phillips played Guðnadóttir’s music while they were shooting and Phoenix just started doing the dancing movements and they kept it.

20. Although many past actors went to dark places to prepare for the role of Joker, Phoenix says he didn’t have that experience.

“I didn’t struggle, it was enjoyable, it was fulfilling,” he said.

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