Summary
- Joaquin Phoenix was embarrassed when Jimmy Kimmel showed "unseen footage" from The Joker during their interview.
- Fans criticized Jimmy Kimmel for embarrassing Phoenix and putting his personal life on blast.
- Phoenix discussed his family's reaction to the film and the physical difficulty of losing weight for the role.
Looking back, Joaquin Phoenix took his prep and work for The Joker very seriously. Promoting the film proved to be a tough task as the actor even walked out of interviews following inappropriate questions.
In this case, alongside Jimmy Kimmel, Phoenix wasn't ready for "unseen footage" to be made public. We'll reveal how the moment made things awkward for the guest. We'll also reveal the other ways the Jimmy Kimmel Live interview got completely derailed. Fans were not impressed, and let Jimmy Kimmel have it in the comment section.
Let's take a look back at the ups and downs from the interview that took place four years ago.
Joaquin Phoenix Was Embarrassed By His Joker Outtake On Jimmy Kimmel Live
Four years ago, Joaquin Phoenix took to Jimmy Kimmel Live, discussing his role in The Joker. The interview itself, aside from the end, was completely fine, with so much interesting information being shared, including Joaquin's weight loss and prep for the film.
However, the interview takes a turn when Kimmel shows "unseen footage" from the film. Phoenix was under the impression that such a behind the scenes moment would not be shown. It gave a glimpse of the actor he clearly did not want the world to see. After Kimmel showed the footage, Joaquin was clearly embarrassed by it.
He said, “Sometimes movies get intense. You have a lot of people in a small space and you’re trying to find something. That was supposed to be private, I’m sorry you guys [the audience] had to see that.”
The actor added, “I should probably publicly apologize to Larry. I am sorry, but he did whisper constantly while we’re trying to work, and sometimes it’s really hard to find the emotion you’re after… he shouldn’t have done it."
The moment can be relived in the video below.
The interview generated over 17 million views. Along with the views came lots of comments from the fans. Among the 35K comments included lots of angry people at what took place near the end of the interview.
Fans Blasted Jimmy Kimmel On The Embarrassing Interview Moment With Joaquin Phoenix
The most liked comment on the video was shot at Jimmy Kimmel. The user wrote, "Just to be clear, the dislikes are for Jimmy, not the honorable Joaquin."
That theme followed throughout the comment section, as fans weren't pleased with what went down between the two, and how it resulted in Phoenix getting embarrassed.
"This interview was going so well, Joaquin had his feet up laughing and enjoying his time. Then this just went downhill once Jimmy started attacking Joaquin, putting his personal life on blast and making fun of him."
"You're making fun of it, but it was serious for me," he says without a smile, while Kimmel laughs it off. Literal chills."
"Notice how Jimmy got visibly nervous when Joaquin said "You're making fun of it, but it was serious for me."
The interview just goes to show how serious Phoenix was about his role in the film. Looking back, we assume Kimmel would've approached the interview a little differently....
Joaquin Phoenix Also Discussed His Family's Reaction To The Film During His Interview On Jimmy Kimmel Live
The interview did have some interesting bright spots. Among them, was Joaquin discussing his family's reaction to watching the film.
“My whole family came to the premiere. Afterwards we went back to my place and my sisters got into a heated discussion about what the movie is about, what it meant, what was real and what wasn’t – it was really fun to watch that."
Not only was getting the mental mindset a tough part of the role, but Phoenix also had to prep for it physically, dropping lots of weight for the role.
The actor revealed that part of the prep was also extremely difficult.
“It’s difficult at times [losing weight], but there’s also something very empowering about it, having that level of control of yourself. In the beginning you’re exhausted, but once you reach your target weight you start to feel energized and excited,” he recalled “You can’t watch TV because commercials come on for food. You don’t socialize at all. Food and drink is what all of our social activity revolves around. If you don’t have that, you go ‘what the f--- am I doing?’.”
It was all worth it in the end, as The Joker was a smash hit at the box office, while Joaquin Phoenix received lots of praise for his performance, along with numerous awards.
