After Marvel fans practically pulled their hair out this week when they couldn’t buy tickets to the latest “Avengers” film, DC Comics is ready to get in on the action.
But really, it shouldn’t. Not with a new Joker, at least.
The trailer for “Joker,” the villain’s first origin story, came out this week, and it looks chilling. Joaquin Phoenix stars as a troubled clown who eventually becomes the Batman foil famous for his blood-red lips and maniacal laugh. Following Jared Leto and Heath Ledger, Phoenix is the latest actor to take on the infamously difficult role.
For “Suicide Squad,” Leto leaned in hard to the role, sending his cast members bullets, a live rat, and a dead hog as part of his method acting. No, that sort of stunt isn’t actually in character for the Joker, who prefers to set psychological traps and leaves playing cards for his victims. Leto’s style was more flash than terror. So despite its commercial success, critics were not fans of “Suicide Squad,” or Leto’s role in it, either.
Ledger, on the other hand, won a posthumous Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in “The Dark Knight.” But months before the movie came out in the summer of 2008, Ledger died of a drug overdose. In the time leading up to his death, Ledger committed to playing the best Joker he could, even if it meant taking on the killer’s psychosis himself.
To get into the psychotic mind of the Joker, Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for a month, he told Empire Online:
History doesn’t have to repeat itself, but if Leto’s cartoonish Joker disappointed critics and audiences alike, and Ledger’s legendary adaptation shocked us all but potentially contributed to his death, why would anyone else want to take the role?
This isn’t just about the actors, though. The upcoming “Joker” may not be good for its audience, either.
We’ve always loved a well-done bad-guy story, from “The Godfather” to “Ocean’s Eleven.” We’re increasingly fascinated by the origins of our villains, from Disney’s “Maleficent” to Marvel’s “Venom.” There’s something powerful about humanizing even the most devilish characters.
But with these types of films, we also risk glamorizing them.
Psychopath or not, the Joker is human too. But so are his victims. So are real-life killer Ted Bundy’s victims, but that hasn’t stopped two documentaries and a feature film about the serial killer from coming out this year. If we’re looking for drama, we can enjoy it just as much by hearing the harrowing stories of victims who’ve survived or the people who saved them. When we focus too much on humanizing villains, we miss the opportunity to celebrate heroes.
It’s not going out on a limb here to say that playing the Joker probably hasn’t been great for Phoenix’s mental health. Just for the sake of showing us evil, actors shouldn’t dwell so much in darkness. And as the audiences who support them, neither should we.
