When Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) makes his big debut on Live! With Murray Franklin near the end of the film, Joker sees an older woman in the audience who seems to be enthusiastic with his presence, so he walks up to her and kisses her before sitting down. This is actually a homage to the late Heath Ledger.
Back when doing press for The Dark Knight in 2008 before his untimely death, Heath Ledger was interrupted during an interview by a fan who was incredibly excited to see him. After hearing her squeal out a joyful noise, he walked over to her and gave her a kiss… After which point she fainted.
While the older woman in Joker does not faint after being kissed by Joaquin Phoenix’s tragic villain, the influence is clearly there. Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger were said to be very good friends in real life, so it’s possible that the scene was ad-libbed into the script (which underwent some on-set changes).
Here is the official synopsis for Todd Phillips’ Joker:
Director Todd Phillips’ Joker centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham. The movie is not part of the DC Extended Universe, and seems to play into Warner Bros.’s interests of making creator-driven superhero movies over necessarily building a hyper-connected shared universe… At least for the time being.
Joker is now playing in theaters.
Source: Instagram
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The film will also be set in Central City.