One of the most defining sequences in Todd Phillips’ “Joker” happens after Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) murders three Wall Street workers who insulted him on a subway journey. Arthur enters a filthy restroom and begins to cleanse himself by dancing alone. The horrific dancing motions come to characterize the Joker’s emergence, but they’re not the reaction Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver initially planned. A new video from Screenplayed puts Phillips’ commentary over the bathroom scene as it appeared in the script, indicating that the original scene was completely discarded during production.

“What’s interesting about this scene to me is it’s entirely different than what we had scripted,” he explained. “In the script, [character Arthur Fleck] was to come into the bathroom, hide his gun, wash off his makeup, and stare at himself in the mirror and saying, ‘What have I done?.”

Before to the scene’s filming, Phillips played Phoenix a piece of music supplied by musician Hildur Gudnadottir, which led Phoenix to burst into a slow and methodical dancing routine. The director and actor opted to go with the unplanned direction that related back to Arthur Fleck’s affinity to music as the 250-member team waited outside.

“Joker”
Warner Bros.

“Joaquin just started to dance to the music, and it was just me and him alone in the bathroom,” Phillips added. “There’s 250 people on the crew waiting outside and he just starts doing this dance and we both kind of looked at each other and said ‘OK, that’s the scene.'”

“It made sense to us. When I first met Joaquin I told him Arthur is one of those people who has music in him. Music and dance became a theme in the film. This is the second time we see him dancing and it’s a little bit of Joker coming out.”

Composer Hildur Gunadóttir expressed her appraisal of the scene’s strength in a recent interview with /Film, adding that it was actually the first one written for the film.

Gunadóttir explained, “It was the very first piece of music I wrote, and that piece, it was the strongest, most physical reaction I had to the story,” “What Joaquin is doing in the scene, it was coming from exactly the same place.”

Despite early criticism and reservations about the film, Warner Bros.’ Joker has proven to be a box office hit. The film has already shattered box office records and is on course to take the top spot for the second week in a row. This weekend, Joker is expected to generate at least $50 million in the United States.

“Joker” is presently showing in cinemas all throughout the country.