Joaquin Phoenix said he “probably shouldn’t” diet for the Joker again

September 4, 2024

Warner Bros. Pictures

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Joaquin Phoenix intentionally made himself thin to the point of looking sickly for 2019’s Joker, shedding more than 50 pounds in a performance that won him a Best Actor Oscar.

But to play Arthur Fleck aka Joker in the forthcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, he had to do it all over again — something made more difficult by the film’s new physical requirements, he told a panel at the Venice Film Festival, where the movie premieres Wednesday.

“I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet, because I just think nobody wants to hear that,” he said Wednesday, according to Variety.

The new movie, in which Phoenix stars opposite Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, prominently features music and dance sequences, unlike director Todd Phillips‘ blockbuster original.

The actor continued, “This time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time. So it felt a bit more difficult.”

He added, “I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me.”

He also said that Gaga “also lost a lot of weight,” noting, “It was really impressive.”

For her part, the actress/recording artist demurred, saying, “I think we transformed into our characters over a period of time, and we continued to hone in every kind of detail.”

For the record, Phoenix admitted to being “so angry” at himself “for making such a big deal about” the weight loss last time, because “it just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost.”

“You just do what you’re f****** supposed to do,” he continued. “So this time I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.'”

Joker: Folie à Deux opens Oct. 4.

Francis Ford Coppola laments the “death of journalism” as he again touts his film ‘Megalopolis’

Lionsgate

We’ve already reported that Francis Ford Coppola gave his own film Megalopolis five stars on the cineaste site Letterbxd, but in a new chat with Deadline alongside his star Adam Driver, the Oscar-winning filmmaker explains what he thinks of the mixed reaction to the decades-in-development project.

Coppola insisted his director friends are “very frank about” saying if they didn’t like a film — and apparently they haven’t said that to him. “I’ve been getting what I wanted to get from my colleagues” was how he put it.

He later allowed of the public reaction to it, “No one says it’s boring.” He insisted “a lot of people will say, ‘Wow, I want to see it again,’ and the more they see it, the more they’ll get out of it,” relating it to the reaction to his Apocalypse Now.

For the record, Apocalypse was an award-winning film out of the gate — something that people incidentally pointed out after Megalopolis‘ “fake critic” controversy.

“There are people who love the film. There are people who say, ‘I don’t know what I think,’ but they’ll see it again, and they’ll find something else in it — because there’s a lot in it.”

Coppola seems to have also fielded a question about reports his Megalopolis set was disorganized — or possibly headlines of his alleged inappropriate behavior on set. It’s unclear because the trade’s questions were not recorded.

Nevertheless, Coppola said, “We’re witnessing the death of journalism and the death of the studio system. … For journalism to retreat behind unknown sources and … trying to get clicks, and saying something bad because you know that something bad will always get clicks, it’s sad.”

Driver called the production among his all-time favorite experiences as an actor.

Megalopolis is now in theaters.

Sunday night’s Emmy Awards rating sees 54% boost from last show

Disney/Mark Seliger

Eugene and Dan Levy may never have hosted an awards show together, but the Schitt’s Creek stars’ stint onstage on ABC Sunday night delivered numbers not seen since 2021.

The telecast broke a streak of all-time low ratings earned by the last two broadcasts, according to numbers confirmed by ABC Audio.

The Levys — but more importantly the coronation of two already-popular shows The Bear and Shōgun — boosted the viewership by more than 54% from the last one, which was held in January on Fox, to nearly 7 million people.

That January telecast, the strike-delayed 75th annual Emmys, drew just 4.3 million people.

ABC points out that the 2021 telecast, which was held on CBS, also benefitted from an NFL game lead-in, which Sunday night’s telecast didn’t have.

Courteney Cox remembers Matthew Perry on anniversary of his death

Justin Lubin/NBC

On Monday evening, Courteney Cox followed Jennifer Aniston with a tribute to their former Friends co-star Matthew Perry, who died of a drug overdose on Oct. 28, 2023.

Along with a photo of herself with Perry, Cox wrote, “Missing you today and always.”

This followed Aniston’s Instagram post earlier in the day, which marked the somber occasion with the caption “One year.”

Another who paid tribute to Perry was Simpsons voice star, Friends guest star and Perry’s longtime friend Hank Azaria, who noted on X, “One year without Matthew.”

To a collage of pictures of the pair together, Azaria added, “He helped me get sober and made me laugh harder than anyone else. I miss him every day. The world isn’t the same without you, brother!”

Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine at 54 years old. Five people have been charged in connection with his death.