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Joaquin Phoenix Quits Gay Film 5 Days Before Shooting Starts

It remains unclear why Phoenix, who reportedly helped develop the film's storyline, ultimately walked off the Todd Haynes project.

By on August 12, 2024

Joaquin Phoenix - Photo: Harald Krichel, wikicommons
Joaquin Phoenix – Photo: Harald Krichel, wikicommons

Joaquin Phoenix walked away from a gay romance movie that he reportedly helped develop, five days before filming was set to begin in Guadalajara, Mexico, as first reported by Deadline. 

The actor had initially brought the idea for the film to director Todd Haynes and had reportedly pushed for the film to contain more explicit content, which would have resulted in an NC-17 rating, usually considered a death sentence for a film’s commercial release.

“We basically wrote with [Phoenix] as a story wrtiter,” Haynes told IndieWire in an interview at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. “Joaquin was pushing me further and going, ‘No, let’s go further — this will be an NC-17 film.'”

The now-scuttled untitled movie, which reportedly will not be recast, would have followed two men — one played by Phoenix, and the other by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Danny Ramirez — who have an intense relationship and leave California for Mexico.

Details are scarce about what led Phoenix to quit the movie, although he is known for being a method actor, meaning he usually wants to inhabit his characters completely.

It is unclear whether that led to the actor getting “cold feet,” a source close to the production described the situation to Variety.

Another insider told The Hollywood Reporter that the movie’s team is “devastated” and that the amount of money spent on the film was in the low seven figures.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, Christine Vachon, whose Killer Films was producing the film, called the experience a “nightmare.”

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However, Vachon sought to dispel rumors that Phoenix had left the film because of homophobia. The legendary LGBTQ independent film producer also hit back at people criticizing the project for not hiring a gay actor for the role. 

“If you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that ‘that’s what you get for casting a straight actor’ — DON’T,” she wrote. “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).”

Haynes’s movies typically involve LGBTQ themes, particularly Carol, Poison, and Velvet Goldmine. He most recently directed May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

Carol, from 2015, is particularly noteworthy because Phoenix’s real-life romantic partner, Rooney Mara, completed the project and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, one of six nominations the film snagged, including a nod for Cate Blanchett for Best Actress.

Phoenix is next expected to appear at the press tour for Joker: Folie à Deux. The R-rated, Todd Phillips film, which co-stars Lady Gaga, is expected to be a blockbuster and an awards darling this fall.

Social media users either appeared to mock Phoenix or expressed anger over his snub of Haynes, a beloved filmmaker.

“Joaquin Phoenix quitting the gay movie he wrote for himself,” wrote Tom Zohar, attaching a meme from the TV show The Real O’Neals.

“Joaquin Phoenix has been an arrogant, self-serving, craven dickhead for two decades now (and he made Joker, for which, try him in The Hague) this latest dick move is no surprise but how dare he fuck with Haynes,” wrote user Katie Conaglen.

“Really bold of Joaquin Phoenix to fuck over Todd Haynes just before he needs the gays to support his next Joker movie…!” wrote MrEAnders on X.

“This is an asshole move Joaquin Phoenix,” wrote Nico Antonio Valencia on X. “You just cost Danny Ramirez a chance to work with Todd Haynes and a main role that could’ve been elevated his career to the next level. Backing out of a project 5 days before shooting leaving hundreds unemployed is fucking crazy.”

“There’s probably nothing that Joaquin Pheonix can do to alienate Paul Thomas Anderson but if he thinks the rest of the film industry will take his fucking over Todd Haynes at all lightly I believe he is mistaken,” posted the noted film critic and journalist Glenn Kenny.

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