And those are the movies that I love. And
those are the movies that I pursue.”
To develop the character of Arthur
Fleck, Phoenix did research on narcis-
sism and criminology and studied the
movements of Buster Keaton and actor
Ray Bolger, the scarecrow from The
Wizard of Oz, which inspired the highly
creepy dance that so acutely expresses
Fleck’s private madness. During one
scene, the screenplay called for Fleck
to shut himself in a bathroom after sev-
eral murders, looking for a place to hide
his gun. Phoenix and Phillips decided
it didn’t feel right, and while they dis-
cussed the scene, Phillips played Phoe-
nix some newly composed music for
the movie. Phoenix began dancing, an
elegant, tango-like movement, and Phil-
lips asked the cameraman to start lming
with a handheld camera, just the three
of them in the room while a crew of 250
waited outside. The scene became part
of an eye-popping trailer, set to a Jimmy
Durante tune, “Smile.”
The muse of the movie, in many ways,
is one of its costars, Robert De Niro, who
plays a late-night talk show host mod-
eled in part on Johnny Carson. “He is
my favorite American actor,” Phoenix
says of De Niro. “I got the impression
from him that he did things in [a] scene,
“I FELT
LIKE,
YEAH,WE
SHOULD
EXPLORE
THIS
VILLAIN.
THIS
MALEVOLENT
PERSON.”
VANITY FAIR 101