On Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the talk show host “surprised” guest Joaquin Phoenix with a behind-the-scenes clip of his apparent outburst on the Joker set. The unused footage, which was allegedly given to Kimmel by the film’s controversial director, Todd Phillips, shows Phoenix wearing his Joker makeup while complaining about the film’s cinematographer, Lawrence Sher. “The constant whispering, just shut the [bleep] up dude,” the actor says of Sher’s apparently on-set teasings. “I’m trying to like find something real. [bleep] dude.”
The thing is, it’s quite possibly not real. As many suspected, the behind-the-scenes footage provided by Phillips to the talk show was probably staged for the sake of Phoenix’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview. According to The Wrap, representatives for the actor confirmed “that it was a joke.”
Not that any of this is surprising, of course. After all, this is the star of the pseudo-documentary I’m Still Here we’re talking about. He’s the same guy who infamously tanked an interview with David Letterman. Hence why so many people were already suspecting that the clip was fake by early Wednesday morning. Then again, as we pointed out earlier, Phoenix is an Oscar-nominated actor, so it’s not like he couldn’t convincingly pull off appearing to feel embarrassed about the clip.
