See Joaquin Phoenix Fully Transformed For Next Movie

Check out a fully-transformed Joaquin Phoenix on the set of his next movie. You will barely recognize the actor in his new look.

By Tyler Pisapia | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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After shocking the world with his slim figure in the 2019 film Joker, Joaquin Phoenix has undergone yet another body transformation. 

The actor was spotted on the set of Ari Aster’s highly anticipated next movie Disappointment Blvd. A little less than two years after Joaquin Phoenix cut roughly 52 pounds in order to tell the origin story of the Clown Prince of Crime, the actor now appears to have regained weight and completely changed his look to portray an undisclosed character in the new venture from the Midsommar and Hereditary helmer. 

Snapshots of Joaquin Phoenix on set show him with significantly more weight on his bones than he had portraying Arthur Fleck, although it would be inaccurate to call him fat. A more apt description of the 46-year-old actor’s frame would be to call it average to what people had expected of him prior to Joker. The changes don’t stop there, though. He’s also looking significantly older thanks in large part to his thinning, gray hair — the gray satin pajamas don’t do a whole lot to inject some youth into his look either. Fortunately, the advanced age is likely some movie magic. 

Not much is known about Joaquin Phoenix and Ari Aster’s collaboration as details of the plot are being kept under wraps. This is not surprising for those who are familiar with the mind-bending plots of other A24 ventures, particularly Asters’. However, Deadline previously reported that Disappointment Blvd. is described as an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. So, it’s possible that Phoenix’s character pops up over the course of several decades of time in the film, making an aged-up look necessary. 

Fans of Joaquin Phoenix can only hope that his latest body transformation was easier on him than the last one. Before filming, director Todd Philips convinced the actor that Arthur Fleck should be a very skinny person. Whether that was to make him look closer to his comic book counterpart or merely to highlight how weak Arthur is compared to a society that belittles him is unclear. However, the toll the agreement took on the actor is clear. 

Speaking to the Associated Press ahead of the release of Joker in 2019, Joaquin Phoenix admitted that being so concerned about his weight in order to achieve his goal led to him developing a bit of a “disorder.” He says that spending months obsessing over fractions of a pound every day changed his way of thinking. Even after he reached his target weight, he was unable to stop being concerned about his food intake for a while afterward. Perhaps this new role in Disappointment Blvd. is exactly what he needed to get his diet on track? 

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While his commitment to the role in Joker is impressive, he made sure to note to Access Hollywood at the time that the dramatic weight loss was all done under the careful supervision of a doctor. He’s a method actor, so although he played one in the film, he’s not an actual lunatic.