As soon as it was confirmed that Joaquin Phoenix was returning as the Joker, there was only one thing on fans minds.
Hundreds of people flooded social media with comments of concern regarding how much weight he would once again have to lose to star as the infamous villain, after the US actor revealed he had shed 22kg for the first film.
Now, Phoenix has spoken out about how he has slimmed down for his leading role in Joker: Folie à Deux once more and why he hopes it will be the last time he does it for a movie.
Take a look at the trailer for his new flick here:
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The upcoming sequel to 2019's Joker sees Phoenix return as the titular character, while Lady Gaga will step into the shoes of his love interest, Harley Quinn.
Fans have gone wild after seeing the first official clip from the jukebox musical of the pair interacting in Arkham Asylum, but a lot of people picked up on the fact that they both look a lot leaner than usual.
The cast celebrated the debut of Joker: Folie à Deux at the Venice Film Festival yesterday (4 September) before Phoenix, Gaga and the film's director Todd Phillips fielded questions at a press conference.
As you can imagine, the star's weight loss was considered quite a hot topic.
Phoenix explained that he found it a lot more 'complicated' to lose the pounds in comparison to his prep for Joker.
"This time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn't have last time," he said. "And so, it felt a bit more difficult."
For the first film, the Gladiator star lost 22kg to play the crazy clown, and he did so by eating a diet which mainly consisted of apples, lettuce and steamed vegetables.
Although he worked closely alongside a nutritionist, Phoenix previously admitted that he found the process 'grotesque'.
"It's a horrible, brutal diet but you get all the vitamins and minerals, so you're like safe," he told USA Today.
At the 2019 Venice Film Festival, he also admitted the drastic weight loss had impacted his 'psychology', but said this ultimately assisted him when getting into character.
"You start to go mad when you lose that much weight in that amount of time," Phoenix said.
Phillips said he intended for his Joker to look 'malnourished and thin and hungry' in the first film, and it seems he fancied the same thing this time around too.
However, Phoenix declared he wouldn't be getting into the nitty-gritty of his diet again due to the reception he got previously, even though he admitted he 'was responsible' for sparking the conversation.
Speaking on Wednesday, he said: "That becomes your obsession because you’re working the entire time to get to a certain weight. So then, you end up talking about it, and then it just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost."
"By the end of that run, I was so sick of myself and angry at myself for making such a big deal about that part, because you just do what you’re f***ing supposed to do," Phoenix said.
"So this time I was like, 'I’m not going to do that'."
But he did point out that he noticed Gaga had lost 'a lot of' weight for Joker: Folie à Deux.
Addressing his co-star, he said: "I met you and then we did some rehearsals and then you went away for like a month, and then you came back and you lost a lot of weight. It was really impressive and seemed very difficult."
Phoenix was asked whether there will come a point where he can no longer lose weight to such extremes for a movie role.
"You're right," he responded. "I'm 49. I probably shouldn't do this again. This is probably it for me."
However, he did stress that he worked with a doctor to ensure his health wasn't suffering.
Topics: Health, Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, Lady Gaga, Celebrity, TV and Film
Olivia Burke