Joaquin Phoenix Was Originally Set to Star in Split Instead of James McAvoy

The longer the Joker: Folie à Deux press tour goes on, the more we learn about the behind-the-scenes work ethic and psychology of the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning actor behind Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix. Now joining the pile of what has become a media blitz of Phoenix facts is a tidbit about how he was initially tapped to reunite with his Signs director, M. Night Shyamalan, on the 2016 psychological thriller Split.

During a recent episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Speak No Evil star James McAvoy revealed that Phoenix was on deck to star as the multi-personality-addled character Kevin Wendell Crumb. According to McAvoy, Phoenix made like a banana and split Split two weeks before Shyamalan started shooting the film.

“I think he ditched it two weeks before the shooting,” McAvoy said. “It was really last minute.”

When asked what it was like to pick up a character that a director like Shyamalan had initially had cast with a different actor, McAvoy cavalierly joked, saying he was confident enough in his acting prowess to “do it better anyway.”

He continued. “[Phoenix] is an amazing actor. I think he’d give a very different performance to the one I did, but I think he’d give an incredible performance. Sometimes coming in last minute is the best way.”

As alluded to earlier, during the Joker 2 press tour, Phoenix and director Todd Phillips revealed that the DC sequel film almost wasn’t in the cards because Phoenix is historically averse to starring in sequel films. Through their shared love of Fleck’s character, the pair went from jokingly pitching where his story could go to working on the first film in 2018. However, unlike Split landing McAvoy as Phoenix’s replacement, the same can’t be said about his most recent instance of backing out of films at the last minute.

During the Venice Film Festival, Phoenix dodged a question inquiring about his backing out of Carol director Todd Haynes’ gay romance film five days before it was set to shoot. Although (per Deadline) Phoenix explained his lack of a response out of respect for the other parties involved not being present to also say their piece, Variety reports that the Joker actor quit the project simply because he got “cold feet.” According to that same Variety report, Phoenix’s “storming off the set” of the film—which would’ve had him star opposite Top Gun: Maverick and Captain America: Brave New World  actor Danny Ramirez—not only killed its production, it also could potentially lead a financial loss exceeding seven figures with crew members needing to be paid.

Should Joker 3 ever become a twinkle in James Gunn’s version of the DC Universe, hopefully Phoenix’s pattern of ducking out of films last minute won’t become a bigger problem than it has been for folks who don’t have actors like McAvoy on standby.

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