30 Facts You Didn't Know About Joker

Murray one small thing yeah when you bring me out can you introduce me as Joker hey what's up everyone it's Ryan here from the Y and today we're going to be taking a look at Joker so let me know if I'm wrong but from what I can remember Joker is the first movie to focus solely on a comic villain's origin story and this leads into what makes the film so intriguing to me it's partly a look at how the Joker came to be but it's also just as much a commentary on mental illness rejection from society and the ensuing descent into madness with that in mind let's get right into the video here are 30 facts you didn't know about Joker Joaquin Phoenix has stated that the most difficult aspect of becoming Arthur Fleck was perfecting his laugh s and as he tries to explain in the film condition he's talking about is a real disorder called pathological laughter or pseudobulber affect defined as uncontrollable fits of laughter totally disproportionate to what's taking place sufferers can even in rare cases become hypoxic from lack of oxygen to the brain thank you speaking further about the laugh Phoenix described it as something that's almost painful I think for Joker it's a part of him that wants to emerge prior to Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix coming together to make Joker both had actually turned down opportunities to work on other comic book films it's known that Phoenix declined offers to play the Hulk and Doctor Strange for two major reasons first he would have had to reprise a role in The Hulk and second he saw that the Marvel films had a heavy focus on action set pieces and big explosions and less on what he considered to be his Forte building and examining a character for Todd Phillips his reasoning was largely the same as he classified previous comic book movies as loud and just not up his alley so with similar conceptions of the type of film they wanted to make Phoenix and Phillips came together to make what they called a sorta anti-comic book movie when Arthur walks into Murray's talk show he gives Dr Sally an awkward unwanted kiss [Music] this entire sequence was taken from the 1986 comic book miniseries The Dark Knight Returns talk show kiss and all but the comic book takes it a step further as the doctor immediately dies as a result of the Joker having toxin on his lips and a few seconds later the whole audience follows suit from The Joker releasing his toxic gas [Music] in the film Arthur performs his comedy routine at pogo's comedy club the name is a reference to John Wayne Gacy a serial killer who performed at children's events under the moniker Pogo the clown in total Gacy raped tortured and ultimately murdered 33 young men and boys but his nickname wasn't the only thing the film made reference to taking a look at the clown makeup of both Arthur and John Wayne Gacy it's clear to me that the filmmakers took some level of inspiration from the killer clown have you ever heard the old adage an apple a day keeps the doctor away well early on in the film's life cycle rumors circulated that Joaquin Phoenix only ate one apple a day to lose weight for the role but as Phoenix explained it wasn't an apple a day you've also got lettuce and steamed green beans like that's some sort of a big upgrade but it was exactly what he needed to lose a whopping 52 pounds in a little over three months it's no surprise that Phoenix found the process extremely challenging both physically and mentally where even walking up a flight of stairs took 30 seconds of hyping himself up and not to mention the fact that every morning he wake up and obsess whether he was 0.3 pounds lighter all in all Phoenix lost so much weight that producers decided not to do any reshoots for the sake of his health when Arthur makes this joke when I was a little boy and told people I was going to be a comedian everyone laughed at me well no one's laughing now the line was copied almost word for word from the late Bob monkhouse everybody laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian well they're not laughing my audience and funny enough while monkhouse wasn't a psychopathic lunatic he did keep several joke books that even Arthur would be jealous of it's got a book a book of jokes foreign much like how Heath Ledger kept the journal to help prepare him to play The Joker Joaquin Phoenix did the same thing and while Ledger's Journal was mostly filled with comic book and newspaper clippings Phoenix stuck to just regular old text entries and one such entry in the journal reads as follows dead on the sidewalk with people stepping over you maybe he's happier but I don't want to die with people just stepping over me I want people to see me then on Murray's talk show if it was me dying on the sidewalk you'd walk right over me before Thomas and Martha Wayne meet their Infamous demise in the dark alley it's briefly shown how they ended up there in the first place during the start of the riots you can see that their limousine was set on fire this explains why they were forced into making an escape down the dark alley and also possibly indicates that they were specifically targeted as their limo was the only car in the street that was set Ablaze in a certain way Joker and the Batman feel almost Inseparable like yin and yang almost as if one can exist without the other and the film explored this a bit further with the Intriguing concept of both being created on the same night but when asked about the possibility of a Joaquin Phoenix Joker and a Robert Patton in Batman crossing paths in a film Todd Phillips decisively stated that it will never happen it's gonna have a birthday this quote is a reference to the graphic novel The Killing Joke in which the Joker States all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy because Arthur's laugh was such an integral part of his character and development as such throughout the film Phillips broke his lap down further into three different types there's the Affliction laugh the one of the guys laugh ah and the authentic Joy laugh [Music] because of the limited budget they were forced to work with Joker contains virtually no CGI effects something that is almost unheard of especially in this day and age to my knowledge the only scenes that did ucgi were the exterior shots of Arkham Asylum and any parts containing blood and with only having a budget of 55 million Joker takes the title for being the cheapest film to gross a billion dollars at the box office and also the only R-rated film to do so foreign Joker it almost seems as if Arthur has two distinct personalities there's the somewhat normal Arthur who's able to mostly keep it together then you have the insane version of him where he just seems to give in to his mental illnesses AKA what we would call The Joker and interestingly enough there's a way to tell what Freedom mind he's in based on his hands when he's stable Arthur uses his right hand to do things and when he loses control unless the evil thoughts take over he involuntarily switches to using his left hand not only is this present when he writes in his journal but the phenomenon also takes place whenever he uses the gun are you having any negative thoughts all I have are negative thoughts improvisation was undoubtedly a huge Factor when it came to the making of Joker and possibly the best example of this comes during the following scene the original version only featured Arthur running into the bathroom stashing the gun in a crate and then washing the makeup off his face but after filming It That Way Phoenix knew that the scene needed something more and he happened upon the missing link when Phillips played some music to try and set the mood as before he knew it Phoenix unconsciously started dancing to the somber tune all that was left was to find some inspiration for the specific type of movements he had in mind and he found exactly what he was looking for in Ray bulger's performance of the old soft shoe foreign you can see an outline of a sworn enemy hidden in plain sight although sadly it seems that it was not intentional as director Todd Phillips stated I don't do Easter eggs any Easter eggs anybody finds is a mistake which is a little bit disappointing especially considering that joker is a comic book film but regardless mistake or not I'll take it so I came across this image online showing the back of an ambulance that was obviously designed in the form of the Joker smile but here's what's confusing I searched all throughout the film and for the life of me couldn't find it in any of the shots that's when I realized the ambulance was in fact a part of the movie it's just that the backside of it was never shown if you take a look at the ambulance in this scene and then the ambulance in the penultimate sequence the difference between the height of the red lines is clearer and it's obvious the second ambulance is the one with a joker smile on the back door as for the reasoning behind why it was never shown maybe they were planning on putting it in the film and decided not to or perhaps Todd Phillips refused to put it in the film because he hates Easter eggs to be honest no one really knows but it would have been cool to see it in the film even if it was just for a brief second according to Joaquin Phoenix one of his favorite parts of the filming process involves sassing off to Robert De Niro and more specifically saying this come on Murray have you seen what it's like out there Murray Todd Phillips gives credit to three movies as major influences in the making of Joker Taxi Driver Raging Bull and the king of comedy besides the fact that they're all character studies from the 70s and 80s which the film most certainly was Joker also directly built off the back of the king of comedy as it too centered on a struggling comedian who becomes obsessed with the talk show host in New York City during one of Murray's bits he says the following so everybody's heard about the super rats that are in Gotham now right then throughout the course of the film The Super rats make a couple of appearances in the background [Music] due to Joker being a film centered on one person Todd Phillips talked about one of the main considerations they had to take into account every other element really becomes a character in the film the production design the Wardrobe the way we shot the film The City of Gotham to me the music is one of the biggest characters of the film because Phillips had this idea about music essentially being a main character he did something he's never done before and sent out the script to have the composer start writing music prior to shooting any of the scenes that way once filming actually began the music was available to provide inspiration whenever it was needed in the making of Joker a big focal point for Todd Phillips was always how they were going to portray violence speaking on that point he said violence in the movie was always meant to be a slow burn you could watch something like John Wick 3 and there's a much higher amount of violence we tried to paint it with as realistic a brush as possible so that when it comes it feels like a punch in the stomach I think many people myself included were shocked that Todd Phillips who was famous for directing comedies like The Hangover had it in him to produce a dark psychological Thriller like Joker that isn't to say he's forgotten his roots though as Justin thoreau's Cameo on Murray show was a call back to his prior film due date in Joker thoreau's character was named Ethan Chase will you please welcome a good friend of the show Mr Ethan Chase [Music] which was the real name of Ethan Tremblay in the comedy film the ending of Joker shows Arthur running through the halls of Arkham being chased down by an orderly with the final text of the End closing out the movie and if we take a look at the final sequence of the highly acclaimed Citizen Kane you'll notice that the font is exactly the same whether this was simply a reference to one of the greatest films ever made or a statement by Phillips that joker is on that level I guess we'll never know Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker seems like a home run no matter how you spin it but for Warner Bros Executives it wasn't so clear-cut in fact it took Todd Phillips almost a full year to get the film greenlit by the studio heads and word is the super low budget was a tactic to try and dissuade him from making the film but Phillips of course forged ahead despite all the pushback and gave us the Joker origin story we now all love is it just me or is it getting crazier out there Arthur getting fired from the job he loves is the start of his bad day which eventually results in him losing his marbles and surprisingly the part in which he forgets to punch out was all improvised by Phoenix according to lay gill who played Gary Phoenix walked back in said the line I forgot to punch out then proceeded to punch the thing about 20 times till it finally came off the wall everyone was stunned but Todd Phillips loved it and immediately called for a reshoot only this time the prop Department made it a little looser so it didn't take 20 punches to come off and additionally padded it with a sponge to give a little protection to Phoenix's hand two big name actors declined offers to play characters in the film Francis McDormand was sought after for the role of Penny Fleck but didn't want it which is understandable and Alec Baldwin nearly played Thomas Wayne before dropping out partly due to scheduling conflicts and partly because he couldn't get behind the reinvented Thomas Wayne who was pretty much an you think this is funny [Laughter] in the 1989 film Batman Joker looks to be fond of a certain painting on the wall the painting is known as the Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and lo and behold it makes an appearance in the 2019 film on Arthur's living room wall you would think Todd Phillips would be a lot more easy going and fun loving coming from Comedy but it seems like that's not the case as he said he doesn't do Easter eggs and now I'm hearing that Philip said this about deleted scenes I hate extended Cuts I hate deleted scenes they're deleted for a reason the movie that exists is exactly the movie I want it to be and I will never show a deleted scene so in lieu of actually watching a deleted scene I'll just tell you about the best ones the first deleted scene I came across was important at least in terms of clearing up some misconceptions it featured a horrified Sophie in her living room watching Arthur's appearance on Murray show and like I said this totally cleared up any question of whether or not she was still alive another deleted sequence involved a second encounter between Randall and Arthur in the stairwell right after he's fired exactly what was said between the two might never be known but Phoenix described it as the hardest scene to let go then there was a scene that had to be cut in order for the film to retain its R rating all that's been said about it is that it contained Arthur in about up so you can use your imagination as to what exactly took place as one might expect from two method actors on set together Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro barely spoke and further than that Phillips detailed how the pair almost had a falling out before the cameras even started rolling so I'm sure you all know what a read through is right it's the thing you've seen where everyone sits at a table and reads through the script to get a better feel for it well Joaquin Phoenix hates them and as a result doesn't do them but De Niro being more old school in his approach refused to let Phoenix off the hook and told Phillips he had to be there Phoenix told the director there's no way I'm doing a read through but possibly out of respect for De Niro he eventually relented and begrudgingly showed up that isn't to say he gave it his best effort though as Phoenix reportedly mumbled through most of his lines and then retreated to smoke a cigarette but always settled between the two after the read-through as De Niro pulled Phoenix into his office gave him a kiss on the cheek and told him everything's gonna be okay bubbala I think part of what makes Joaquin Phoenix such a great actor can also leave him misunderstood and during production of Joker this was on full display as Phillips recounted how Phoenix would occasionally leave the set right in the middle of filming a scene whether he wasn't feeling his performance or just needed a breather his co-stars would often think they were the ones doing something wrong of course this wasn't the case and they eventually all got used to his strange method acting proclivities there was however one person Phoenix never walked out on and that person was Robert De Niro simply because he had too much respect for him okay I'm waiting for the punchline there is no punchline thank you all for watching I hope you enjoyed it if you did don't forget to leave me a like And subscribe alright till next time have a great one guys

Channel: The Why

Views: 240,339

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Id: H5XCD8or_QY

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2022