He’s gone on to find superstardom and Academy Award-winning accolades with roles like “Joker,” but actor Joaquin Phoenix’s path to the A-list was arguably paved with the help of filmmaker M. Night Shylaman, who cast him in 2002’s “Signs” and 2004’s “Signs” almost back to back. The two haven’t collaborated since, but it’s not for lack of trying. In a new Happy Sad Confused interview, James McAvoy, who eventually starred in Shylaman’s split-personality thriller “Split” movie and the subsequent sequel, “Glass,” confirmed that the role was Phoenix’s at first.
READ MORE: Joaquin Phoenix Kills Todd Haynes’ Gay Detective Film By Dropping Out At The Last Minute
However, inadvertently adding fuel to some recent fire, the actor also admitted the Oscar-winner bailed on the role two weeks before they started shooting.
“He’s an amazing actor. I think he’d give a very different performance to the one I did. Sometimes, coming in last minute is the best way. I think he ditched it like two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last minute,” McAvoy said of Phoenix.
Of course, this doesn’t help the narrative of Phoenix as an unpredictable (and uninsurable?) actor who leaves film productions in the lurch. Phoenix just did the same to Todd Haynes’ gay romance detective movie earlier this summer, dropping out of the film at the last minute and eventually forcing it to cancel due to all the money the production had lost on the delay (there’s talk that Killer Films may sue Phoenix, but so far, no litigation has commenced).
For his part, McAvoy apparently had no problem stepping in for Phoenix, seeing it as part of the business. Furthermore, even while diving into the complicated role at the 11th hour, the screenplay was so good that he knew exactly how to tackle it.
“The script was well put together, so a lot of it was pretty clear what I actually wanted to do straight away,” he said. “There was a couple of characters it took a little bit longer to find. Patricia came real quick, Dennis came real quick, Hedwig took a little while.”
“I hadn’t even found some of the characters and then it just came on really quick,” he continued. “And then Night actually said to me, ‘I want you to give Hedwig a speech impediment,’ and I was like, ‘What, just at the last minute? You want me to just go for it?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, we need to try something.’ So we did it in the readthrough, and after one scene of doing it, were like, ‘Done!’
Given that there was Oscar talk for McAvoy and how complex his split personality role was in the movie, it’s nothing short of deeply impressive what he pulled off.
As for Phoenix, yeah, this isn’t a good reminder of his last-minute second-guessing and cold feet—a habit he’s been cultivating for some time now. It may eventually blow up in his face if he and Killer Films, the production company behind Haynes’ canceled movie, can’t come to some settlement behind the scenes.
But really, you have to ask yourself about that. Would Todd Haynes ever want to work with him again? Would you? Watch the conversation below.