Joaquin Phoenix will soon be in Venice, promoting Joker: Folie à Deux with Lady Gaga. That was supposed to be his big thing this year: promoting the Joker sequel, his return to a role which won him an Oscar (which I still loathe). But it looks like Joaquin had something else on his schedule this summer. He was supposed to begin filming on a “gay romance” directed by Todd Haynes. Joaquin pulled out just five days before he was due on set. This is a huge catastrophe and people are going to lose millions of dollars just because Joaquin changed his mind about a story HE brought to Haynes and HE developed with Haynes.
Joaquin Phoenix has dropped out of Todd Haynes‘ untitled gay romance film, just five days before filming was set to begin in Mexico, Variety has confirmed. Phoenix had developed the screenplay for the detective love story with Haynes and Jon Raymond. A source close to the production tells Variety the actor got “cold feet.” Entire sets had been built in Guadalajara before Phoenix made the last-minute decision to exit the film.
Hinged on Phoenix’s casting, the movie, produced by Killer Films and backed by sales agent MK2 Film, had already sold to international distributors ahead of production. Sources tell Variety the project is in peril, indicating that Phoenix’s role cannot be recast. The crew is now out of work, and stakeholders in the film still need to be paid. Losses could exceed seven figures.
“Top Gun: Maverick” star Danny Ramirez joined the cast in July as Phoenix’s love interest. In 2023, Haynes teased the project in an interview with Variety as a “love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content.” The film was said to be rated NC-17 and feature a relationship that will “challenge” audiences.
Speculation among the crew is that Phoenix’s exit had to do with the graphic nature of the film’s sex scenes. But that theory is confusing to some sources, who reiterate that it was Phoenix who brought the project — and its NC-17 concept — to Haynes in the first place. Haynes told Variety in September 2023 that the film started with “fragments of ideas” from Phoenix, which the director formulated into “an actual narrative” before bringing Raymond on board.
“Basically it was just this wonderful, organic way to create the script,” Haynes said. “And Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.”
This is… legitimately bonkers. Bonkers from a legal perspective too, because why wasn’t Joaquin locked in contractually? You can say “oh, the Oscar winner had cold feet,” but if he has a contract, dude has to show up on set in Mexico and get it on with Danny Ramirez. Was this all being done on a handshake deal?? A producer on the film, Christine Vachon, wrote this on her Facebook page:
“A version of this did happen. It has been a nightmare….And PLEASE — if you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that “that’s what you get for casting a straight actor” –DON’T. This was HIS project that he brought to US– and Killer’s record on working with LGBTQ actors/crew/directors speaks for itself. (and for those of you who HAVE– know that you are making a terrible situation even worse).”
Yeah, I already saw some people arguing “this is why Joaquin should never have been cast as a gay man.” But as Vachon points out, again, this was Joaquin bringing a story to Todd Haynes. This was Joaquin putting together a graphic gay romance AS HIS OWN STAR VEHICLE and then just days before he was due in Mexico, he was just like “nah, I can’t.” Rooney Mara, come get your man.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.