Joaquin Phoenix Declines To Explain Dropping Out Of Todd Haynes’ Gay Film

Actor News

2024-09-06
13:02

Controversial actor Joaquin Phoenix declined to state his reason for dropping out of director Todd Haynes’ gay romance film.

On September 4, Wednesday, during a press conference for his upcoming movie ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ at the Venice Film Festival, Phoenix was asked about his untimely exit from the untitled explicit queer movie.

“I think if I do [speak about the reasoning], I’d just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, and it just doesn’t feel like that would be right,” the 49-year-old actor answered the reporter who asked about the incident. “I’m not sure how that would be helpful. So I don’t think I will,” he continued.

The Oscar winner reportedly quit the film after getting “cold feet” despite writing the screenplay with Haynes and Jon Raymond. Phoenix unexpectedly left five days before filming started regardless of the finished sets in Guadalajara where the filming was supposed to take place.

Fans criticized Phoenix after the announcement and most recently for leaving the Venice premiere of the ‘Joker’ sequel a few minutes before the 11-minute standing ovation ended.

“He can cut the shit. He knew all along that he didn’t want to do it. He wrote produced it, knew what the material was and even pushed for it to be more explicit so much it could get an NC-17 rating and backed out at the last minute for no reason. Shameless as hell. TRASH!” an X user wrote.

“‘Joaquin Phoenix left’ likely thing for him to do,” another user said about the actor backing out of production for several projects due to cold feet and leaving the Venice Film Festival early.

What do you think about his statement? And now that Phoenix is out of the picture, who do you think should they replace him with? Let us know in the comments section below or tweet us @BLTaiOfficial on X.

Sources: (1) (2)