Joaquin Phoenix's film Joker has crossed $1 billion at the box office, and also becomes the first R-rated movie to hit this milestone.
According to reports, Joker joins three other DC titles to cross this number—Aquaman, The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight. The Todd Phillips-directorial portrays the back story of Batman's dreaded nemesis—Joker. Joaquin Phoenix had earlier said he was initially scared of starring in Joker, but the actor believes the fear motivated him to work harder. The film also features Robert De Niro, Brett Cullen, Frances Conroy, and Marc Maron.
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In a cover story on the 44-year-old actor in The New York Times, Phillips revealed that they had several fruitful creative differences over the character, one of the most iconic and complex villains in the Batman lore. Phillips said Phoenix "lost his composure on the set, sometimes to the bafflement of his co-stars". "In the middle of the scene, he'll just walk away and walk out. 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," he told The New York Times.
Phoenix, however, would always return after taking a break. "We'll take a walk and we'll come back and we'll do it," is what Phoenix told Phillips after a particularly tense moment.
-with PTI inputs
