Controversial Question On ‘Joker’ Prompts Joaquin Phoenix To Walk Out Of Interview

Issued an ‘R’ rating for strong bloody violence and strong language, Joaquin Phoenix was recently asked as to whether the Todd Phillips movie will incite violence. Sitting down with a daily for Joker, Phoenix was asked if his onscreen role might "perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it’s about, with potentially tragic results’ to which Phoenix answered "Why? Why would you…? No, no," and walked out of the interview.

According to the outlet, Phoenix the spent about an hour speaking with a Warner Bros press agent before returning to complete the interview with the interviewer telling NYT that the 44-year-old actor "lost his composure on the set, sometimes to the bafflement of his co-stars".

"In the middle of the scene, he’ll just walk away and walk out. And the poor other actor thinks it’s them and it was never them — it was always him, and he just wasn’t feeling it’’.

Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular jester, has been showered in praise following recent film festival premieres with critics calling it ‘bold, devastating and utterly beautiful’.

The prospect of R-rated comic book movies has been in frequent conversation ever since the huge success of 2016’s Deadpool which became the second highest-grossing R-rated film of all time behind Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

Creating a huge Oscar buzz since Venice Film Festival, Phoenix’s Joker will be released in India on October 4.