Batman's famous villain Joker has been putting a powerful impact on different platforms since last 80 years. Not only movies but in comics and games too. We have seen multiple origin stories of Joker in Comics as well as in movies. Many actors performed as joker but recent famous of them are "Heath Ledger", "Jared Leto" and Joaquin Phoenix. The origin story of Todd Phillips' Joker is so much different from other Jokers. This movie have broken many old records and set new records as well. Today we are going to talk about 15 mind-blowing awesome facts about Joker movie.

Fact No. 15

"DIFFERENCE"

Joaquin Phoenix' staring Joker 2019 is a psychological thriller movie directed by american director Todd Phillips. This movie is based on Batman's famous villain Joker who appeared in comic Batman issue #1 in 1940 for the first time. The origin story of this joker is so much different from comic in a realistic and grounded way. The story revolves around Arthur Fleck in year 1981. This Joker is in entire different universe.

Fact No. 14

"JOAQUIN'S PHOENIX'S AGREEMENT"

Joaquin Phoenix is so much choosey for his work. He wanted to make a low budget character study movie in 2014-2015. Marvel studios offered him to play role as Hulk in marvel cinematic universe. He refused to do that. Later on Marvel studios offered him to do Doctor Strange. He refused that offer too. Basically he didn't want to commit himself in multiple movies as a same character. DC offered him to play as Joker before Heath Ledger. He refused it too by saying "You can't do the Joker, because, you know, its just you can't do that character. Its just been done".

On the other hand Todd Phillips wanted to make a character study movie too. He was offered multiple times to direct a Superhero Movies but he refused to do that. Fortunately when he explored Joker, he thought to create it in a different realistic way not connected to any superhero. And when Joaquin Phoenix was offered to do it in that way, he got excited to do that. So that's the thing they wanted to do for years.

Fact No. 13

"CASTING"

Martin Scorsese was the producer of this movie. In the start Warner Bros suggested Todd Phillips to cast Leonardo Dicaprio as Joker as Leonardo Dicaprio worked with Martin Scorsese in his 6 movies. But Todd Phillips rejected their suggestion and showed interest to bring Joaquin Phoenix as Joker because according to him, He wrote this character for Joaquin Phoenix only. And by doing so Joaquin Phoenix got his most remembered act.

Fact No. 12

"INSPIRATION"

Basically this movie's inspiration was 1988's Batman The Killing Joke comic. Where the origin of the Joker was based on the failed comedian. But Todd Phillips mostly took inspiration from Martin Scorsese's movies like "The Taxi Driver (1977)", "Raging Bull (1980)" and "The King Of Comedy (1983)" and some other movies like "Serpico (1973)", "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (1975)" and "The Man Who Laughs (1928) (the movie, comic's joker was inspired by".

Fact No. 11

"THE SOURCE MATERIAL"

There is a technique all actors use and that is to consume source material. For example if the story is about a comic book character then actor will explore that character in comic books a lot. But in case of this movie, Joaquin Phoenix didn't read a single comic book of Joker, instead he developed the character of Joker where he was inspired by stories and confessions of Criminals like political assassins and murderers. He wanted to develop a character that no one need a psychologist to understand.

Fact No. 10

"PHYSICAL PREPARATION"

Physical preparation for Joker was so painful for Joaquin Phoenix. He reduced 52 pounds (23.5 kilograms) of his weight for the role of Arthur Fleck. Where he only weighed 28 kilograms during the filming of Joker. He started dieting few months before filming. He used to eat only one apple, lettuce and some boiled peas a day. There was huge role of hunger in the pain and anger of Arthur Fleck we have seen. According to the Joaquin Phoenix himself the diet was making him mad.

Fact No. 09

"ICONIC LAUGH"

After the mental and physical preparation, the biggest task for Joaquin Phoenix was to create the iconic laugh of Joker. Initially he worked on many versions of the laugh but when he started studying the patients of pathological laugh disorder, then he got the inspiration of his iconic laugh. Joaquin Phoenix modeled his iconic "Joker Laugh" on patients of pathological laugh disorder. A mental disorder part of Pseudobulbar Effect. Where a person can laugh or cry with no reasons. Pseudobulbar Effect happens due to a traumatic brain injury or neurological disorder.

Fact No. 08

"TIMELINE"

To show difference from current reality, Todd Phillips choosed late 1970 and early 1980's timeline for this movie. He was inspired by New York's conditions of that time. Where New York was in bad conditions due to industrial and economical collapse. New York was a dangerous place for a common man due to crime homicide and gangsters. That's why Todd Phillips modeled Joker's Gotham City on 1980's New York.

Set design of 1980 for this movie was designed by Mark Friedberg (production designer). Mark lived in New York in his childhood. Movie shot in Brooklyn. And to differ Gotham City from New York, additional CGI was used.

Fact No. 07

"BACKGROUND SCORE"

Maybe some of you don't know that movie's music and background score usually created after the principal photography of the movie where music composers compose their music according to the each scene's setting and mood but in this case, music was composed before the movie. Actually the musician "HILDUR GUDNADōTTIR" was given the script of movie before filming and she composed the music by understanding the intensity of scene just from script.

Fact No. 06

"IMPROVISED BY JOAQUIN PHOENIX"

Joaquin Phoenix improvised many scenes in the movie. For example, due to excellent music the iconic scene was improvised by Joaquin Phoenix where he dance in the washroom, the moment where Arthur Fleck turns into Joker. That scene was not scripted but completely improvised by Joaquin Phoenix.

Fact No. 05

"CONTROVERSY"

After the release of "Dark Knight Rises" in 2012, a Joker inspired psychopath did a mass killing in Aurora, Colorado theater.

So during the release of Joker 2019, Families of Victims of Aurora Colorado Theater requested DC to not to release Joker movie in theater. And seeing the subject matter of the movie the American Military issued a cautionary notice to FBI and US Department of Homeland Security. Even movie watchers were advised not to cosplay Joker. And this thing was not liked by Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix. According to them those were the misconceptions about the Joker they created.

Fact No. 04

"PROBLEMS FOR JOAQUIN PHOENIX"

Joaquin Phoenix reduced his so much weight for this role that it was a challenge for him to gain energy for the scenes. He was facing difficulties for retakes. That's why Todd Phillips used to do some little changes in the story. Actors only had few minutes on the makeup chair to memorize the lines.

During filming Joaquin Phoenix used to spar (verbal blows) with Robert De Niro. Because Robert De Niro wanted to practice lines but Joaquin Phoenix wanted to act directly.

Fact No. 03

"HOLLYWOOD RESPONSE"

People appreciated Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips. Actor Mark Hamill who used to give voice to the Joker in many animated series and movies said "Brilliant" to the acting of Joaquin Phoenix. Actor Josh Brolin ( who acted as Thanos in marvel cinematic universe and as Cable in deadpool 2) said "To appreciate Joker you have to have either gone through something traumatic in your lifetime (and I believe most of us have) or understand somewhere in your physic what true compassion is."

Actor Vincent D'Onofrio, Vincent Chastain said Joaquin Phoenix's performance best of ever seen.

Fact No. 02

"ACHIEVEMENTS"

Lats talk about its critical and financial achievements.

On a total budget of 55-70 million dollars, Joker grossed 335.5 million dollars in the United States and Canada, and 738.5 million dollars in other territories, for a worldwide a total of $1.074 billion dollars. 6th highest grossing movie of that year and first R-rated move to cross 1 billion dollars.

This movie got 146 nominations, from which it got 97 awards. Joker won the most prestigious award of Venice Film Festival known as Golden Lion Award. Joker was nominated for 11 academy awards including Best Actor and Best Picture, where it won for Best Actor and Best Original Score. Joker also won Golden Globes Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Score. And in Critics Choice Awards Joker was awarded for Best Actor and Best Original Score.

Fact No. 01

"FUTURE"

In the early days after the release of Joker it was rumoured that Todd Phillips working on sequel but later on Todd Phillips confirmed that "We have no plans for a sequel. The quote was, 'I will do anything Joaquin wants to do. And I would. But the movie's not set up to (have) a sequel. We always pitched it as one movie, and that's it."

What do you think about the Joker movie? Which fact surprised you most? Tell me in the comments below and if you like my article then

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