Willem Dafoe has once again raised a bashful-yet-eager hand for his dream role: The Joker.
โYou know, talk to Warner Brosโฆ I floated an idea a while ago, but it didnโt quite happen, so,โ the actor behind Norman Osborn / Green Goblin told Jimmy Fallon during his latest appearance on The Tonight Show.
โI didnโt really float it to them. I just mentioned it in an interview and then it kind of went out on the internet. But I thought it would be cool for me to play an imposter โ like slipstreaming his thing.โ
As some of you may recall, Willem Dafoe previously expressed his desire to portray a copycat Joker alongside Joaquin Phoenix with quite an intriguing twist while in conversation with GQ UK.
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โThere is something interesting about, like, if there was a Joker imposter. So it would be possible to have not duelling Jokers but someone that [claims] to be the Joker that isnโt the Joker,โ explained Willem Dafoe.
โAnd that kind of opens up the possibility of an interesting story, particularly if you had Joaquin Phoenixโs Joker, and then you had someone who was either imitating or riffing off what he did. I fantasised about that. But other than that I am not talking to anybody [about it], youโre the first one.โ
Based on the leaked footage weโve glimpsed from the set of the forthcoming sequel, Joker: Folie ร deux, which appears to depict multiple Jokers int the same scene (see: below), director Todd Philips may have actually drawn inspiration from Dafoeโs unofficial pitch. But given details are still minimal, at this stage, itโs impossible to know.
Joker: Folie ร deux starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, understood to be a psychological thriller of a musical, has officially set a release date: October 4th of 2024.