Joaquin Phoenix Tells Venice Press Why He Made 'Joker' Movie

Joaquin Phoenix poses with co-star Zazie Beetz and director Todd Phillips while attending a photo call for Joker during the 2019 Venice Film Festival on Saturday (August 31) in Venice, Italy.

The three stars were joined at the event by producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff.

During the press conference, Joaquin talked about why he decided to make the project. He said it was because “we were going to approach it in our own way. I didn’t refer to any past iterations of the character. It just felt like it was our creation.”

“I think what was so attractive is he’s so hard to define and you don’t really want to define him. There were times I would find I was identifying certain parts of his personality and then I would back away from that because I wanted there to remain a kind of mystery. Every day felt like we were discovering new aspects of the character,” he added (via Deadline).