‘Joker’ Director Todd Phillips Talks About the Memorable Scene of Arthur Fleck Dancing in a Gotham Bathroom

Director Todd Phillips sat down with The New York Times to talk about a very memorable scene from Joker in which Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), clad in full clown makeup, dances by himself inside a dimly lit Gotham public bathroom. Phillip explains that this particular scene was quite organic as Phoenix came up with the dance on the day of the shoot. Rather than going back to the script, Phillips let the dance continue.

A run-down bathroom with a flickering fluorescent light, a swooning piece of music and some slow, deliberate moves. Those spare ingredients go into crafting this downbeat but memorable moment from ‘Joker.’