Todd Phillips reveals Joker bathtub scene that was too insane to be included in the film

Director Todd Phillips has revealed that there was a scene that was too ‘insane’ to be included in the theatrical cut of Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Director Todd Phillips has revealed that there was a scene that was too ‘insane’ to be included in the theatrical cut of Joker. Phillips’ comic book film is inching towards the $1 billion mark at the global box office, riding a wave of controversy and public interest in actor Joaquin Phoenix’s acclaimed performance.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from Joker.(AP)

Phillips said at a recent Q&A, according to ComicBook.com, “So, we would finish our days early sometimes and we started doing this thing, Joaquin and I, we called it ... a study of insomnia. It was our own fun little thing like we have an hour left in the day, let’s light this kitchen, Joaquin let’s do something over by the sink or the fridge, and let’s just set up two cameras, Larry (Sher) would operate one, Jeff (Groth) would operate the other, and we would do these things—the fridge was one of those.”

 

He added, “It wasn’t in the script it was something that Joaquin just kind of did and there was a few others, there’s only one other that’s in the movie and it’s when he’s laughing after he goes to Zazie’s (Beetz) apartment and he comes back down the hall and he’s laughing alone in that living room, that was another one. There were two or three others we shot, one that is amazing in a bathtub, but I don’t think we can actually include it in an R-rated movie and it’s not because it was pornographic, it was just insane.”

Joker debuted to polarising reviews at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Golden Lion award. It opened to great box office success, and has already become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. After it enters the billion-dollar-club this week, as it is expected to, it will become the cheapest film to do so, with a reported budget of around $60 million.

Phillips has previously said that he will not show any deleted scenes from the film. In an interview to Collider, Phoenix said, “There was a scene that, that during the shoot we thought was one of the best scenes and we loved his behaviour in the scene, and I’d always really liked the scene. And Todd told me and said, ‘We’re cutting that scene out.’ And at first I thought, like, ‘Wait a minute, what do you mean you cut that scene out?’ And then of course I saw it, and it was very obvious. It has to go.” Describing the scene in question, Phoenix said that it was a second meeting between Arthur Fleck and his co-worker Randall, after Arthur is let go from his clown agency job. In the final cut, Arthur exits the building after messing with a sign, and ‘punching out’, literally. Phillips said that cutting out the scene was ‘a heartbreaker’ and that it “might’ve been the last scene I cut out.”

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