Joaquin Phoenix's reputation as a 'difficult' actor, explained

Joaquin Phoenix's PR team has working overtime. The actor has been widely criticized for his decision to exit a Todd Haynes drama mere days before it slated to start production. The financial repercussions of this decision, for both Haynes and the film's producers, is said to be significant.

The Haynes situation was the first domino. The second was an article by The Hollywood Reporter, in which two different sources claimed that Phoenix threatened to walk off the set of the recent drama Napoleon. The actor reportedly demanded that friend and close collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson be brought in to do script rewrites, and director Ridley Scott had no choice but to relent.

Phoenix's method process has been criticized

These two dominos bring us to our central question: is Joaquin Phoenix a difficult actor? Is his method worthwhile, or is merely a moodier, less irksome Jared Leto, right down to the Joker gig?

Well, Joker (2019) is a good place to start. Phoenix won an Oscar for his performance as the titular villain, but he did have his detractors. Most of them, seemingly on the set. Todd Phillips, the director of Joker and its upcoming sequel, admitted that Phoenix's intense process resulted in him walking off set seemingly at random.

This habit left crew members and co-stars frustrated. "In the middle of the scene, he’ll just walk away and walk out," the director told the New York Times. "And the poor other actor thinks it’s them and it was never them — it was always him, and he just wasn’t feeling it."

Phoenix has been known to walk off set during shoots

Joaquin Phoenix has been one of the most revered actors of his generation, but the 2020s have brought about a re-examination of his method process. Owen Glieberman critiqued the actor in a Variety piece after the release of Napoleon in 2023. He claimed Phoenix's commitment to "intense preparation" was actually becoming a performance crutch, rather than a tool.

That being said, several of Phoenix's peers have defended him. Robert De Niro, another famous method actor, complimented Phoenix's process during the making of Joker. So too did director James Gray, who has worked with the Oscar winner four times. "Some people just roll their eyes at that," Grey told IndieWire. "But actors need to be protected and loved."

Phoenix has also been praised by directors like M. Night Shyamalan, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Lynne Ramsay. The long and short of it? Phoenix is most certainly a difficult actor. When paired with directors and writers who know how to navigate said difficulty, though, the ends seemingly justify the means. At least, for the time being.