One of 2019's most hotly anticipated movies is Joker, the origins story of the notorious DC character.
While the role has had many notable actors play it - with Heath Ledger's performance being the most critically acclaimed - there has been a lot of excitement around Joaquin Pheonix's upcoming interpretation, which will be hitting the big screen on October 4.
Now, it has been revealed that the actor lost 52lb to play the part, the LA Times reports.
If you haven't seen it yet, this is the final trailer for Joker:In an interview with MTV, Zazie Beetz (who plays Sophie Dumond in the upcoming film) said that the movie was actually rewritten as it was shot because having Joaquin shoot scenes again at a later date would have been out of the question.
"We had to do everything then because Joaquin had lost so much weight that we couldn't do re-shoots later," she stated.
Discussing what makes this movie different, Pheonix said that playing the Joker when he was still a man named Arthur Fleck gave him a huge opportunity to add depth to the character - and even then, he still feels like there are parts of the Joker that he doesn't understand.
"That's really the only thing that’s worthwhile… There are certain areas of the character that frankly still aren't clear to me, and I'm fine with that," he said, per the LA Times.
"There's something enjoyable about not having to answer a lot of those questions. It requires a certain amount of participation from the audience that feels different."
Similarly, Michael E. Uslan, producer of the Batman movies, further whet appetites for the film, stating that Joker is "unlike any comic book movie you've ever seen."
Explaining his interpretation of the character, Phoenix said: "All I can do is approach the character the way I do and that's it. I just tried to do something that we felt was honest and unique."
Last week, it was announced that the movie had been officially rated R for "strong bloody violence, disturbing behaviour, language, and brief sexual images."
