We sure are seeing a lot of clowns in this upcoming Joker movie. Even the first set video from this Todd Phillips-helmed comic book flick saw Joaquin Phoenix in a confrontation with a man in white face paint and a red nose, but in retrospect, that little clip was just an early warning for the clown army we’d soon see invading the New York subway.
It goes without saying that the movie’s title character takes on a similarly flamboyant appearance, but it looks like Arthur Fleck was finding reasons to wear flamboyant makeup and a green wig before he even became the Clown Prince of Crime. And based on the “Everything Must Go!!” sign Phoenix holds up in these new images, we can probably assume that this colorful costume was the uniform for his day job.
While these photos are most likely taken from the early sections of the story, when Arthur’s still struggling to make it as a comedian, other set pics indicate that his later Joker persona would prove a lot more popular with Gotham City’s general public, who’ve been seen holding up some signs of their own that bear politically charged slogans like “Clown4Mayor” and “Kill the Rich.” How Arthur got so popular is unclear at the moment, but it looks to somehow involve making an enemy of the wealthy Thomas Wayne.
But to go back to these new images, though Phoenix appears to be full of cheer and energy as he brandishes his sign to passersby, it seems pretty safe to predict that this joviality is somewhat forced. For one thing, a set video which emerged last month shows Arthur breaking down crying in a phone booth while wearing this same costume.
In these early stages of Arthur Fleck’s story, the character might already be on the brink of a breakdown, but we’ll see what pushes him over the edge when Joker comes out on October 4th, 2019.