As the much anticipated sequel debuts, Joaquin Phoenix, the star of The Joker, has thought back on the drastic weight drop he underwent to portray Arthur Fleck and acknowledged he “probably shouldn’t do it again.” This time the sequel is a musical in addition to other disciplines like psychological thriller, and Lady Gaga has joined forces with writer-director Todd Phillips to portray Harley Quinn. As Arthur, Phoenix is uncomfortably slender on television, his ribs visible, and he has an incredibly bony build after significant weight loss.
He did, however, note that getting the appearance he wanted for Joker again, five years later, is “not really that dangerous when you work with a doctor.” Phoenix revealed the extra difficulty he had while filming Joker 2, but he declined to go into detail about his strict diet since “nobody really wants to hear that.”
“This time it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time. So it felt a bit more difficult,” he explained to reporters during the film’s world premiere press conference at the Venice Film Festival. ‘It is safe – but you’re right – I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again,’ he added. ‘That’s probably it for me!’
Phoenix also mentioned that Lady Gaga, his co-star, shed significant weight in preparation for her role as Harley, a mental patient named “Lee” who falls in love with Arthur’s Joker persona. Gaga was cautious not to provide further details, but he complimented her, saying, “I remember I met you and then we did some rehearsals and then you went away for like a month and when you came back, you’d lost a lot of weight – which was really impressive and seemed very difficult.”