Simply Abu Dhabi XXXV

8 7 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Q: This character is obviously very ill. Did you ever worry peoplemight lean towards the interpretation that mentally ill people are evil? JP: The way I look at him is somebody who had experienced a lot of trauma, and in a world that doesn’t really know how to deal with it, they just end up medicating him. I didn’t really approach him as mentally ill. He’s been on seven different medications. I was researching the medications’ side effects. He never had the opportunity to express his needs, and is medicated. I never identified anything about him being mentally ill. I do think he was a true narcissist. He had a narrative in his head of who he should be in the world. Q: You’re the fifth actor to take on the role of the Joker. People keep coming back to this character – why is that? I don’t know. Some of it is just that he looks cool! But maybe there is a certain irreverence about things that he displays. Everybody has different appreciations for him. I am not sure. Q: Do you have a new appreciation for himnow? JP: First, going in – it took longer than six weeks to finally shoot a scene with Joker. I didn’t know how it was going to be. I was terrified. But in hindsight, it all made perfect sense. When I was the alter-ego of Joker, I started to understand the character of the man, Arthur, in a different way. I was so happy to shoot scenes as Joker so late in the process. Todd really created this amazing creative space where we could make mistakes and discover something. It was great that we weren’t so much on the clock to develop this character. We discovered a lot about the Joker while on set. Q: There are several political messages hidden in this movie about killing people and as you mentioned before, about the mental health issues. Was that intentional? JP: To be honest, I didn’t think about that. For me, it’s great that you see these political messages. I like it that people are being challenged on different issues. I don’t think Todd was making just one statement. I like that there weren’t any easy answers to these issues. It really is participation, a dialogue with the audience. I hope it brings up these feelings in the audience. Everybody felt differently about his motivations on set too. Q: On a lighter side, what was your relationship to clowns? How did it feel to see a clown in themirror? JP: I never really thought about clowns, to be honest. Actually, as a kid, I dressed up as a clown. I completely forgot about that. I remember the photograph! When I first put on the makeup it was great. That process to create the look was so much fun. I love the idea that Joker’s look is based on his work. And that it’s grounded in reality. Q: Did the Joker stay with you at the end of the working day? JP: At the end of the night, there was never really an end. It stayed with me every night after work for another two or three hours. I never felt this moment of being done with my work day. I also didn’t really have a life at that time because I couldn’t go out to eat. I didn’t socialise at all. The person I interacted with most was my director. That became my world. It was nonstop. That’s the best for me. I like working like that. Q: That wasn’t hard for you? JP: I had a ball. I want to say it was super hard, but I had a ball. It was so inspiring; however much energy I put into it, I got it back. I would go home after work and we would just talk about the next scene. I was just super excited. I would show up at set two hours early to just sit in the trailer and talk about it. Q: Would you do it again? JP: That‘s tough to answer, right? It really depends on the audience, doesn’t it? We hope everyone enjoys it as much as we loved making it.