Joaquin Phoenix is garnering tremendous praise and Oscar buzz for his role as a comedian-turned-villain in the upcoming Joker.
But the actor, who is currently on the promotional trail for the film, found himself in an awkward situation during an interview with The Telegraph when an uncomfortable question caused him to walk out.
During the interview, Phoenix was asked if he was “worried that this film might perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it’s about, with potentially tragic results?”
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The question caused Phoenix to mutter “why would you…? No… no,” to the interviewer before walking out – only to return an hour later after the journalist did some ‘peace-brokering with a Warner Bros PR’.
Explaining his response, Phoenix said that the question hadn’t crossed his mind before and then asked what an intelligent answer would have sounded like.
Phoenix appears to have a habit of walking off, as Joker director Todd Phillips recently revealed he’d frequently leave the set in the middle of shooting scenes.
“In the middle of the scene, he’ll just walk away and walk out,” he explained. “And the poor other actor thinks it’s them and it was never them.
“It was always him, and he just wasn’t feeling it.”
Phillips added that Phoenix would then take a breather and come back to set, ready to try again.
