Joaquin Phoenix’s NC-17 gay romance promises to be sexually “dangerous” says director Todd Haynes
Joker: Folie à Deux opposite Lady Gaga.The yet-to-be-titled film is actually going to be an audacious gay romance—and it’s coming from none other than Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven), one of our most prolific and revered queer filmmakers working today.We previously reported on the film’s announcement this past May, but new details have emerged from a Variety interview with Haynes, and the director’s giving us the impression that Phoenix is going to let it all hang out in this one.“It’s a love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content that or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” Haynes reveals in the interview. “One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in LA.
It’s set in the ’30s. They have to flee LA ultimately and go to Mexico.”Though the Native American character has yet to be cast (“It’s probably going to be a discovery,” the filmmaker shares), one can assume Phoenix will be filling the “corrupt cop” role, and it sounds like it’s a part he’s quite passionate about.Plus, the meaning behind Haynes’ masterpiece, ‘Velvet Goldmine.’Per Haynes, the actor came to him with the loose idea for the story—”some ideas and some thoughts and just questions and images”—and the two quickly got to work on developing a script along with the director’s Mildred Pierce collaborator, Jonathan Raymond.Haynes describes the trio’s collaboration process as “wonderful” and “organic,” and adds that Phoenix just kept “pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.” Considering the filmmaker previously guessed that the film would receive an NC-17 rating, we’re starting to think that means the 48-year old actor is ready to commit to fully nude, explicit sex scenes, which… okay then!Given that, you might think this gay love story would have trouble finding financing, but Haynes maintains it can be made cheaply and plans to film in Mexico as a stand-in for 1930s Los Angeles.
