Joaquin Phoenix Lost 23 Kgs To Play Joker, A Role He Had To Be Convinced To Play For 4 Months!

A lot of actors push themselves to different extremes to ace the role that they have to play onscreen. To essay the iconic character of Joker has never been easy. It requires a lot of skills, efforts as well as physical training to stump the audiences with disturbing personality of Arthur Fleck, the Batman's arch-nemesis.

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Joaquin Phoenix, who is playing Joker in the upcoming movie, did everything that he could have to ace the character. He lost 52 pounds (approx 23.5 kgs) but strangely, he had no idea about the relevance of weight loss to the role.

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“There’s something enjoyable about not having to answer a lot of those questions. It requires a certain amount of participation from the audience that feels different,” director Phoenix was quoted as saying by LA Times.

Did you know that it took Joker director four months to convince Joaquin Phoenix to take up this iconic role, for which he has the highest odds of winning an Oscar? And it took a year for him to convince Warner Bros to say yes to R-rated Joker.

The Oscar nominated actor only signed the movie once he was convinced that he would be allowed to play “a complex flesh-and-blood character in shades of gray rather than a black-and-white cartoon villain.”

Joker, which is set to have its world premier at Venice Film Festival, has an R-rating for its "strong bloody violence, disturbing behaviour, language, and brief sexual images." It shows the origin story of the Clown Prince of Crime, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Joker is slated to release on Oct 14.