Just as he did for his Oscar-winning performance as Arthur Fleck in 2019’s Joker, Joaquin Phoenix once again lost weight for his role as the main character in Joker: Folie a Deux. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival this week, Phoenix declined to give specifics on how he lost the weight for the Joker sequel, but mentioned how it was more difficult this time around and he’s unlikely to do it again in the future.
“I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet, but this time it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time,” Phoenix said, as reported by Variety. “So it felt a bit more difficult … but it is safe. But yeah, I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again.”
Phoenix dropped 52 pounds for the first Joker movie. He said he ate mainly lettuce and steamed vegetables to drop the dramatic amount of weight that made him look so gaunt in the film. As he mentioned for Joker: Folie a Deux, losing the weight was a more challenging experience for the sequel in part because of all the dancing he had to do, which required more energy.
