Joaquin Phoenix was approached by Christopher Nolan about playing The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’

nme.com:

Joaquin Phoenix has revealed that he was once approached by Christopher Nolan about playing the Joker in The Dark Knight.The actor, who went on to win an Oscar for playing the same character in Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker, and returned for its maligned 2024 sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, opened up about his previous close encounter with the Batman villain in a new interview with Rick Rubin.During an appearance on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, he recalled a meeting with Nolan as the director was preparing to cast the beloved 2008 film.“I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight and that didn’t happen for whatever reason,” he said. “I wasn’t ready then.

That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s not doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else.

There’s another person who is going to do something. … I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?”Ledger did end up taking the role, finishing the filming just months before his death at the age of 28 from an accidental overdose as a result of prescription drug abuse.

He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the role, with he and Phoenix the only actors to win Academy Awards for portraying characters from superhero franchises.“I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person’,” Phoenix continued. “I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know we met.