Joker - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Joker or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Joker

[linda]

At 5'10" ft (177 cm), Joaquin Phoenix is the second shortest actor to portray the Joker, next only to Jared Leto at 5'8" ft (173 cm).

[janice]

Viggo Mortensen turned down the role as Thomas Wayne.

[albert]

The rioters modeling themselves after Arthur/the Joker may make them a Canon Immigrant of the Jokerz from Batman Beyond, gangsters (many from poorer backgrounds) who emulate the Joker in admiration of him.

[janice]

Towards the end of the film when Arthur looks at the picture of his mother smiling, as you will see on the back of the photo is the phrase "I've always loved your smile", what you may have missed is that it's initialed TW (Thomas Wayne). Adding to the mystery of whether he truly is the joker's father, considering his power and influence it could have been easy to forge adoption papers, then again it could have been just as easy for Penny to sign the photo herself given her mental state.

[ruby]

Joaquin Phoenix said about the 24 kg weight loss: "Once you reach the target weight, everything changes. Like so much of what's difficult is waking up every day and being obsessed over like 0.3 pounds. Right? And you really develop like a disorder. I mean, it's wild. But I think the interesting thing for me is what I had expected and anticipated with the weight loss was these feelings of dissatisfaction, hunger, a certain kind of vulnerability and a weakness. But what I didn't anticipate was this feeling of kind of fluidity that I felt physically. I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn't been able to before. And I think that really lent itself to some of the physical movement that started to emerge as an important part of the character."

[chad]

A group of extras reported that they were locked in a subway car for hours against union rules, and all their attempts to bring this up were ignored until some of them even had to urinate out the window. SAG stepped in upon hearing about the situation to closely monitor the production.

[caroline]

Wall markings of the Amusement Mile, Gotham City's old amusement park in the comics, can be seen in the first set stills. As well as graffiti referencing the Mad Hatter.

[kyle]

This is the first live-action Batman related film to be given a certified R rating, despite the fact that Batman does not appear in the movie.

[charlie]

Leonardo DiCaprio and Bill Skarsgård were rumored to play the Joker.

[albert]

The film's final budget was $55 million, considered by The Hollywood Reporter "a fraction" of the typical budget for a comic book-based film.

[tammy]

This marks the second time that Brett Cullen is father of a superhero. In Ghost Rider (2007) he plays Barton Blaze, whose son Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) turns into Ghost Rider. In Joker he plays Thomas Wayne, whose son Bruce Wayne turns Batman. Oddly enough, Barton Blaze and Thomas Wayne's deaths are the reason to create Ghost Rider and Batman. More odd, Cullen also appears as Congressman Gilley in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

[claude]

Joaquin Phoenix disagreed about gravitating towards tormented characters, stating he had been "interested in the light of Arthur for lack of a better word. It wasn't just the torment, it was the joy, his struggle to find happiness and to feel connected. To have warmth and love. I don't think of a character as tormented." Ultimately, Phoenix said of Arthur/Joker, "He was so many different things to me at different times, the more unpredictable it was the more inspiring."

[ken]

Arthur uses a .38 special 3rd Generation Colt Detective Special throughout the film.

[kylie]

Murray Franklin and his show appear to be an amalgam, of Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin, along with the talk shows they hosted.. The surname Franklin was likely an homage to Joe Franklin, who hosted a legendary self titled local late night talk show which aired for several years in New York City.

[linda]

In Dark Knight Returns, the Joker kills Dr. Ruth by giving her a toxic kiss. This is alluded to in the film when he greets a Dr. Ruth Expy with a big kiss on the lips, causing the host to ask if she's OK.

[toni]

Another indication that the film takes place in 1981 happens during the aftermath of the murder of Thomas Wayne and his wife in front of Bruce Wayne; the camera pans away from the alley behind the theatre and has a brief shot of the promotional poster for Wolfen (1981). That movie (also, ironically, a very violent R-rated horror/drama project released by Warner Brothers) was actually released in the summer of 1981.

[sophie]

Joaquin Phoenix attended a Saturday screening at a movie house in the San Fernando Valley, posing with fans and shaking hands. He got a little stage fright when asked to do his tormented Joker laugh from the film.

[ivan]

Todd Phillips and Scott Silver found the most common Joker origin story, in which the character is disfigured after falling into a vat of chemicals, too unrealistic. Instead, they used certain elements of the Joker lore to produce an original story, which Phillips wanted to feel as authentic as possible. Because the Joker does not have a definitive origin story in the comics, Phillips and Silver were given considerable creative freedom and "pushed each other every day to come up with something totally insane." The two wrote the script with Phoenix in mind: "The goal was never to introduce Joaquin Phoenix into the comic book movie universe. The goal was to introduce comic book movies into the Phoenix universe."

[lynn]

In the scene where Arthur is in the audience of a comedy club, the performing comedian is Gary Gulman, who is a stand-up comic. The bit he performs about role-playing with his girlfriend can be heard on Gulman's 2012 album "No Can Defend."