Joker stars clash heads
It turns out Joker stars Robert De Niro and Joaquin Phoenix had a bit of a disagreement on set.
Director Todd Phillips opens up about their short lived feud in an interview with Vanity Fair this week.
Todd says the actors left him stuck, 'between a rock and a hard place.'
It all kicked off after Joaquin refused to do a read-through of the movie's script before filming.
Todd tells the publication, 'Bob called me and he goes, 'Tell him he's an actor and he's got to be there.''
''I like to hear the whole movie, and we're going to all get in a room and just read it.''
The director continues, 'And I'm in between a rock and a hard place because Joaquin's like, 'There's no f***ing way I'm doing a read-through.''
'And Bob's like, 'I do read-throughs before we shoot, that's what we do.''
The read-through
The read-through eventually went ahead at Robert's office in NYC.
However, Joaquin apparently mumbled his way through the script.
Todd reveals Robert took Joaquin aside for a private chat.
'He's in front of Bob, and he goes, 'I can't, I gotta go home,' because he felt sick after that read-through, he didn't like it.'
It seems this is when Robert began to understand Joaquin's predicament.
'[They] talked over a few minor issues,' and Robert assured his co-star, 'It's going to be okay, bubbeleh.'
They never spoke
It turns out their interaction on set was minimal.
The Arthur Fleck actor says, 'I didn't like to talk to him on set.'
'The first day we said good morning, and beyond that I don't know that we talked much.'
Robert explains the reason for this, 'His character and my character, we didn't need to talk about anything.'
'We just say, 'Do the work. Relate as the characters to each other.' It makes it simpler and we don't [talk]. There's no reason to.'
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Joaquin Phoenix and director @toddphillips1 at the UK Premiere of #JokerMovie.
Despite this, Joaquin praises his co-star and brands him his, 'favourite American actor.'
It seems he admires Robert's method acting:
'I got the impression from him that he did things in [a] scene, certain behaviors, certain gestures or movements, whether the camera was on him and registering it or not.'
'For me, I always thought that acting should be like a documentary.
'That you should just feel whatever it is that you're feeling, what you think the character is going through at that moment.'
Joker is out in cinemas this Friday.
