Joaquin Phoenix Declines to Say Why He Left Todd Haynes Movie: ‘I Am Not Sure How That Would Be Helpful’

The weight in the Venice Film Festival press conference room was lifted thanks to Screen International journalist Ben Dalton, who posed the question on everyone’s minds to Joaquin Phoenix at the “Joker: Folie à Deux” presser: Why did Phoenix drop out of Todd Haynes’ gay romance movie earlier this summer?

Asked if he could explain his decision to exit the project he was also developing with Haynes, Phoenix said, “If I do, I’ll just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, 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.”

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As IndieWire first reported, Phoenix dropped out of the Mexico shoot on the NC-17-level gay romance mere days before production was set to begin. Jon Raymond was also developing the script alongside Phoenix and Haynes. Danny Ramirez had been cast as Phoenix’s character’s intense lover. Phoenix dropped out while in Los Angeles before he would’ve gone to Guadalajara, near the Southwestern coast of Mexico in the state of Jalisco, for filming. Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler’s Killer Films backed the project, which is on hold now without its star.

Phoenix was joined at the press conference by his co-star Lady Gaga and director Todd Phillips, who premiere the musical sequel film in competition Wednesday night. The follow-up to Phoenix’s 2019’s Best Actor Oscar-winning “Joker” finds his character, Arthur Fleck, now in mental facility and on death row for crimes committed in the first film.

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