Cinematographer shares Joaquin Phoenix's impressive improvisations while filming Joker

Joker’s cinematographer Lawrence Sher revealed some scenes were not planned but Joaquin Phoenix impressively improvised them. 

During filming one of the scenes, Phoenix who stars as villain, Arthur Fleck cleared out the contents of his refrigerator so that he can fit inside it and then shut the door behind him.

Meanwhile, director Todd Phillips held the shot for a couple extra seconds to show Arthur will remain inside the tight space for a while.

Speaking about how Joaquin Phoenix made this Joker scene work, Sher said “When he climbed in the refrigerator, we had no idea he was going to do that. We set up two camera positions, and Joaquin just thought about what he would do if he was a massive insomniac.”

He added “Again, we lit it so he could go anywhere, and the first and only time he did it, we were mesmerized. I remember thinking, ‘What is he doing? Did he just crawl in the fridge?’ It was as fun and weird for us to watch it, too.”

The cinematographer also shared that the infamous bathroom scene, in which Arthur begins to dance while coping with his first acts of murder, was improvised on the day of filming.

“Joaquin created that whole dance and, after the success of that scene, we started creating more moments like that,” Sher said.

Phoenix’s impeccable acting in a villainous role has made him a strong contender to land an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at the 2020 awards.