JOKER
Joaquin Phoenix had a short interview a day ago
about the Joker movie and of course, it got me thinking of a lot of things to
consider BEFORE I see this movie in a bit less than a month’s time.
Heath Ledger portrayed one of the most iconic
villain roles in superhero and movie history: The Joker. And his untimely death
made people think all kinds of crazy theories about how it affected him in some
shape or form. HOWEVER, you then take some time and investigate what his
co-stars in the movie say about his attitude on set and around the movie you
realize how he actually seemed to be well and enjoyed to portray this scary and
crazy/psychotic character.
This movie is about the degradation that
society brings upon a man (in this case Arthur Fleck) to make him become the
Joker and one of the statements that makes me think about this is when Phoenix
says
“to be honest, I
thought it was a great joy to play Joker. I preferred to play Joker over
Arthur. (…) Everything is so uncomfortable about Arthur, I couldn’t stand it.
(…) Joker was total liberation, you could do anything as an actor”
I believe it is here that we can draw a line
between Ledger’s and Phoenix’s IDEA behind the portrayal of the Joker: they
both found that in madness there is great freedom. An actor’s great happiness
is to be able to enjoy and exert great creativity in their work and what bigger
creativity than a character that has no end to his freedom in madness?
Of course watching the movie could change my
mind and I am highly doubtful that, even when the portrayal could be great, this
Joker will de-throne Ledgers iconic role. However, I am going in as always with
a hopeful, open mind towards a dark, mad movie that will hopefully inspire
loads of thoughts for me to talk to you guys.
And when you guys hopefully go and watch the
movie in about a month’s time, I hope you remember his quote:
“madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away… Forever.”
