Todd Phillips Says ‘Joker’ Had a Bathtub Scene That Couldn’t Be Used in an R-Rated Movie

When it came to Joker, the film, reaction seemed to be mixed, with reviews running the gamut from dud to  masterpiece. In any event, there was a shitload of interest from the public. But when it came to Joker, the character, there seemed to be far closer to unanimous praise for the way that Joaquin Phoenix portrayed Arthur Fleck’s transformation into the iconic villain. Consider this not much of a surprise for anyone who’s ever seen a Joaquin Phoenix movie. 

Also unsurprising, the film’s run of now officially unmatched success has led to the peppering of Phoenix and director Todd Phillips with questions, ranging from follow-ups related to their own theories, to wondering what happened to some of the film’s characters. Phillips has obliged by revealing what happened in scenes that didn’t make the movie’s final cut, including a reveal during a recent Q&A about a “bathtub scene” that was too extreme for the movie’s final R-rating.

Unfortunately Phillips didn’t go into much detail about what the hell happens in said scene (sorry), but he did give a look at the creative process that went on between he-and-Phoenix during the film’s production.

“So the other thing that’s great about Joaquin is that he’s always up to try things,” stated Phillips, according to Comicbook.com. “So, we would finish our days early sometimes and we started doing this thing, Joaquin and I, we called it … a study of insomnia. It was our own fun little thing like we have an hour left in the day, let’s light this kitchen, Joaquin let’s do something over by the sink or the fridge, and let’s just set up two cameras, Larry (Sher) would operate one, Jeff (Groth) would operate the other, and we would do these things—the fridge was one of those.

“It wasn’t in the script it was something that Joaquin just kind of did and there was a few others, there’s only one other that’s in the movie and it’s when he’s laughing after he goes to Zazie’s (Beetz) apartment and he comes back down the hall and he’s laughing alone in that living room, that was another one.”

As stated above, Phillips went on to reveal that one of those created-on-the-spot scenes took place in a bathtub, and he also said that it was too “insane” to clear an R-rated film (which turned out to be very important). As also stated above, Phillips didn’t go into much detail beyond saying it wasn’t pornographic (sorry, again). 

“There were two or three others we shot, one that is amazing in a bathtub, but I don’t think we can actually include it in an R-rated movie and it’s not because it was pornographic, it was just insane,” according to Phillips. 

No further elaboration was provided so, if it doesn’t make it as bonus content for the home version (fingers crossed), this should be a pretty easy question to ask for someone slated to interview him in the future.