I’m impressed by Joaquin Phoenix’s calm demeanor at this morning’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” press conference. When asked about why he abruptly left Todd Haynes’ movie, he didn’t storm out of the room, nor did he seem pissed off. Instead, no doubt with the aid of his PR team, he concocted one hell of a world salad answer:
If I do [answer the question], I’ll just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to say their peace, and it just doesn’t feel like that would be right. I am not sure how that would be helpful. I don’t think I will.
Simple as that. This is media training at its finest. I doubt he’ll be giving us any further thoughts about this matter. You can call this a cowardly response on the part of Phoenix, but what exactly was he supposed to say? “I just didn’t feel comfortable engaging in blowjobs, anal sex and rimjobs with my co-star”?
And just like that, we will likely not be hearing again from Phoenix about this matter. I heard that he’s barely going to be doing any press for ‘Folie à Deux.’ There’s also a potential lawsuit that might be filed against him by Haynes’ producers, including Christine Vachon, as Phoenix owes many millions in losses for his reported exit in the project.