Last Friday, Joaquin Phoenix suddenly pulled out of a Todd Haynes film. The movie was set to film in Mexico and the production was already in town, and Joaquin was supposed to begin shooting this week. What was especially bizarre about Joaquin’s sudden withdrawal is that he initially went to Todd Haynes with the story – an explicit story about two (closeted) gay men – and they developed it together. Haynes got the financing for the film and put everything together with Joaquin’s involvement and using Joaquin’s name, since it was something Joaquin put together WITH Haynes. Well, the Hollywood Reporter has an interesting story about the backlash to Joaquin screwing over Haynes and everyone involved in the production.

When Joaquin Phoenix abruptly exited Todd Haynes’ gay romance movie last week, just five days before production, the actor set off a tidal wave that has now rippled far past the confines of its Guadalajara, Mexico set.

“There’s been a huge amount of outrage,” says one studio exec of the reaction from Hollywood producers to Phoenix’s last-minute departure, which left cast and crew in a lurch, and now opens the actor up to the possibility of legal action, according to sources.

According to multiple sources, Phoenix got cold feet in the leadup to the production, though the reasons remain murky. A rep for Phoenix did not respond to a request for comment. Killer Films declined to comment. The actor is indeed known to get cold feet ahead of filming on various projects. Two sources tell THR that he threatened to leave Ridley Scott’s Napoleon unless his The Master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson was brought in to do rewrites. Placated, he stayed aboard the project, and it arrived in theaters late last year.

In recent days, the drumbeat has gotten louder among the producing community for legal action to be brought against Phoenix, with insiders pointing to examples throughout Hollywood history of actors being held accountable for leaving films without a star.

According to sources, some producers have idly talked about blackballing Phoenix over the Haynes departure, but most acknowledge that’s not realistic, particularly given that Joker 2, out Oct. 4, is expected to be a hit. One agent unconnected to the Haynes movies believes that ultimately, Phoenix will not face significant career blowback. And this person predicts the actor will settle for the low-seven figures the production spent on the movie, citing his big paydays for his Joker films as the actor having plenty of cash to deal with this situation. “As long as they threaten, he’ll settle. It’s nothing to him,” says the agent.

[From THR]

THR also points out that Joaquin has long been squeamish with the promotional tours for his films, and he usually refuses to do more than one or two premieres and interviews. The elephant in the room is Joker: Folie a Deux, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in a matter of weeks. That’s Joaquin’s biggest and most successful starring role to date, it’s a role which won him an Oscar and the first film made a billion dollars. As in, Joaquin is now seen as too powerful/important to face serious repercussions for this mess with Todd Haynes. My thing is… how would an actress be treated in this situation, even an Oscar-winning actress who suddenly flaked out just days before she was due on set? There would be so much more outrage and that actress would absolutely be blackballed.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.