Joaquin Phoenix tried backing out of multiple movies over the years

[Kidd Dibiase]

Joaquin Phoenix has pulled this sort of stunt before. In 2019, he tried to back out of The Joker at the last minute. He did it again in 2021, with Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, and again in 2023, with Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. But in those cases, Phoenix ultimately settled down and the movies ended up getting made. Which raises an obvious question: Is there any way the explicit Todd Haynes gay love story that Phoenix supposedly got cold feet over and abruptly exited Aug. 9 — just five days before shooting was scheduled to begin in Guadalajara, Mexico, where sets were already being built and crews were waiting for the Oscar-winning actor to arrive — might somehow also end up getting made? Rambling Reporter has been hearing all sorts of rumors about eleventh-hour attempts to salvage the untitled project, including reports that Haynes had been contemplating recasting Phoenix’s part. Pedro Pascal’s name has been bandied about, though sources tell THR he’d be an unlikely choice given that Pascal’s schedule is packed until the end of the year with Fantastic Four and The Mandalorian shoots and also because Haynes had already cast Top Gun: Maverick‘s Danny Ramirez as Phoenix’s love interest in the film, which centers on a corrupt L.A. cop in the 1930s who has a torrid affair with a nonwhite male character. “Having two Latinos in the roles doesn’t make a lot of sense,” one talent rep tells THR. Meanwhile, Rambling hears that Haynes’ producers have been considering hitting Phoenix with a lawsuit to cover lost costs, said to amount to several million dollars. Might that entice Phoenix back to the set? Anything is possible, but it’s unlikely, given that money doesn’t appear to be a problem for the actor these days; he got paid $25 million for the Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, which bows at the Venice Film Festival in September. In other words, unless this last-minute vanishing act is another bizarre Phoenix prank — remember in 2008 when he pretended to give up acting to become a rap star? — it seems that this is one doomed love story that truly has been star-crossed.