'Joker' hair and make-up team reveal how they had to bribe difficult star Joaquin Phoenix
The 'Joker' continues to make headlines. After its Golden Globe win, the film is all set to rock the Oscars in February and has been shortlisted in two categories — Original Score and the Makeup and Hairstyling category.
According to a report by Comicbook, the event saw a presentation for each of the shortlisted movies where the heads of the department shed light in-depth about the working and the production details.
While presenting details about 'Joker', the team, while talking about the production also spoke about Joaquin Phoenix's behavior.
"One of the presentation’s major focal points was the difficulty of working with Phoenix," Next Best Picture reported: "He initially wanted to do his own makeup and hair himself, and the film's makeup team had to work out a compromise with him."
"Additionally, he apparently didn't like being touched frequently. He lost 50 pounds for the film and was said to be 'hungry' often. As such, he would walk out in the middle of hair dying jobs and would disappear on set in between takes, so the crew had a hard time finding him for touch-ups."
"The process of maintaining continuity was so arduous that the person in charge of keeping continuity actually quit. The team would bribe him with crackers to get him to keep still (since he could eat little else)," the team shared.
'Joker' narrated the story of loner Arthur Fleck, a man pushed to the periphery of society, and his final devolvement into the world of crime and how he incites citywide riots.
The film continues to be the subject of heated discussion, months after its release. And going by Joaquin's Golden Globes win, the discussion will not be ending anytime soon.
'Joker' premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2019, where it won the Golden Lion and was released in the United States on October 4, 2019. The movie will release on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on January 7.
