Joaquin Phoenix was “psychology affected” from his weight-loss transformation for playing Arthur Fleck in both instalments of The Joker.
When filming the 2019 version, he adjusted to only eating “lettuce, asparagus, and apples,” so as to slack about three and a half stone, leading to “almost losing his mind.”
Five years later, the actor had to go on a similar diet plan for Joker: Folie a Deux, and plans to never do it again.
Talking to New York Times, he said, “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.”
“It felt a bit more difficult, but it is safe. But you’re right, I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me,” Joaquin Phoenix warned himself.
He went on to state that there actually were doubts from his side before jumping in for such a drastic weight-loss, but still managed to become wearyingly thin for Joker: Folie a Deux.
The star described, “It’s a horrible way to live. The first thing for us was the weight loss — I think that’s really what I started with.”
“And, as it turns out, that then affects your psychology. You start to go mad when you lose that amount of weight in that amount of time,” Joaquin Phoenix concluded.
