A fan secretly captured Joaquin Phoenix filming the now iconic dance sequence for the movie Joker. The video has been shared online, much to the delight of fans.
The short video appears to have been taken from inside one of the apartments overlooking the staircase, situated in New York’s Bronx borough. Although there doesn’t seem to be any music being played on the set, the audio instead is from the apartment itself. The video shows Phoenix grooving silently with a cigarette in his mouth, in full Joker costume.
In the film, Phoenix dances down the steps — with a backdrop of streetlights and classic New York fire escapes — after transforming himself into the Batman villain. Many reviewers were outraged, however, that the song he danced to was by convicted paedophile Gary Glitter. The former glam rocker is in a British jail for sexually abusing three girls in the late 1970s.
This is not the first time that a staircase featured in a film has become a tourist draw — the steep, narrow flight of 75 stone steps in Washington’s Georgetown neighbourhood seen in The Exorcist have drawn crowds for decades.
Reacting to the video, fans expressed jealously at the OP witnessing the scene being shot. “Oh wow. A witness to history (even if it’s cinematic). As a fanboy, I’m jealous,” one person wrote. “It’s crazy how he did this magic without a song playing,” wrote another. Another fan noted, “It’s like seeing it from the perspective of the characters in-universe. Pretty scary from their point of view.”
Joker recently became the cheapest film to gross over $1 billion at the global box office. There has also been talk about Phoenix and director Todd Phillips reuniting for a sequel.
