Watch Joaquin Phoenix Do a Creepy Dance in ‘Joker’ | Anatomy of a Scene

A run-down bathroom with a flickering fluorescent light, a swooning piece of music and some slow, deliberate moves. Those spare ingredients go into crafting this downbeat but memorable moment from “Joker.”

When the scene begins, Arthur Fleck (a.k.a. the Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix) has just had an intense, life-defining moment and finds a bathroom to collect and calm himself. He does so with a dance that the director Todd Phillips said Phoenix came up with on the day of the shoot. In his narration, Phillips discusses the music (by Hildur Gudnadottir), and how he and Phoenix came to change the scene from what was in the script.

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