Joker director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix have revealed their favorite deleted scenes from the supervillain origin movie - but unfortunately, fans will probably never get to see them. A new take on Batman’s most infamous nemesis, Joker stars Phoenix as a miserable clown-for-hire suffering from mental illness, who embraces a life of violence after being pushed too far by a hostile and merciless society.

The original cut of Joker was 30 minutes longer than the eventual theatrical cut, so fans may have been hoping for some deleted scenes with the eventual home video release - if not a full director’s cut. Phillips has shot down that idea, expressing his dislike for deleted scenes, but he did offer some hope that we might see a montage of Joker making his entrance on Murray Franklin’s show.

Speaking to Collider, Phillips was asked about the possibility of a director’s cut or the release of some deleted scenes, and responded strongly: “I hate f**king extended cuts. I hate deleted scenes… They’re deleted for a reason… The movie that exists is exactly the movie I want it to be and I will never show a deleted scene.” This seems to put paid to any hopes of seeing what ended up on the cutting room floor - but even if deleted scenes aren’t on the table, there’s one extra goody that Phillips feels warmly about.

A supercut of alternate takes doesn’t technically count as a deleted scene, so perhaps we’ll get to see the montage of Joaquin Phoenix’s various Joker entrances when the movie comes to Blu-ray. As for Phoenix himself, he has a personal favorite scene that didn’t make it into the movie, in which Arthur Fleck (the Joker’s alter ego) speaks with his co-worker Randall in the stairwell at Ha-Ha’s, the clown hire company where they both work. This scene set up a moment later in the movie, where Arthur modifies the sign in the stairwell. For whatever reason, though, the scene wasn’t a good fit for the final cut, as Phoenix explained:

“While I don’t like deleted scenes, we did cut this fun thing together… of [Joker] walking out on Murray Franklin, because every time the guy would go, Murray would stand and go, ‘Please welcome Joker,’ and the curtains would open and he comes out and does something different every time. You know the thing in the movie, he spins, he kisses the woman. But we cut this thing together of ‘Please welcome Joker,’ and I don’t know, we did it 13 times maybe, and they’re all different and they’re so funny and there’s so many good ones. I was like, ‘Oh, I wonder why I didn’t use that one?’”

It’s common for movies - especially superhero movies - to include a few deleted scenes on the home video release as an extra enticement to buy. Recent Marvel movies Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home even got rereleased in theaters with bonus footage as a way to boost their box office. However, Joker isn’t a typical superhero movie (for starters, it doesn’t have any superheroes in it), and fans of the movie would probably argue that it’s perfect the way it is.

“There was a scene that, that during the shoot we thought was one of the best scenes and we loved his behavior in the scene, and I’d always really liked the scene. And Todd told me and said, ‘We’re cutting that scene out.’ And at first I thought, like, ‘Wait a minute, what do you mean you cut that scene out?’ And then of course I saw it, and it was very obvious. It has to go.”

More: Why Joker Likely Won’t Hit $1 Billion (Despite Breaking Box Office Records)

Source: Collider

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