Producer Christine Vachon recently opened up about the controversy surrounding Joaquin Phoenix‘s last minute exit from Todd Haynes’s film ‘May December‘. It has been reported that the ‘Joker‘ actor quit his agreement with director Todd Haynes last minute.
Joaquin was planned to star beside the ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ actor Danny Ramirez in a gay romance plot. But his exit has now left the film’s crew devasted over the last-minute change. Here’s everything the producer said about it.
Christine Vachon Was Shocked Over Joaquin Phoenix’s Exit From ‘May December’
While at the Creative Investors Conference at the San Sebastian Film International Festival, Killer Films producer Christine Vachon addressed Joaquin Phoenix’s last-minute exit from ‘May December’.
“The truth is, pretty much what happened is out there for all of you to read. I don’t know much more than that. I’d gossip if I had anything to gossip about, but I don’t. It was tragic,” she said when asked about what happened with the project.
Christine called the whole fisaco a “tragedy” for her. She asserted that she can’t get over the fact that “we as people lost the cultural community, and lost the opportunity to have another movie by Todd Haynes”, which she feels is “criminal”.
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She stated, “In a lot of ways, the most tragic part about it is that Todd Haynes is 62. He’s not old, right? But there is a finite number of films that he’ll be able to do in his lifetime,” adding that she considers him “one of the most extraordinary film artists of his generation”.
Christine Vachon Opens Up About The Rising Costs Of Movie Making
Christine Vachon touched back on the controversy later in the conversation when speaking about the current temperature of the American feature marketplace and studios’ reticence to task risks on projects not seen as “commercial”.
She said, “One of the other tragedies of the Phoenix project is that we did have fantastic partners who were willing to take risks with us. Some of them are here and now chasing me with a crowbar [laughs]. When something like that happens, it sends a shockwave through the industry.“
Vachon continued, “If a company like Killer, a star like Joaquin, a filmmaker like Todd, if that fell at the finish line, then how do we take a risk on the first-time filmmaker or the actor who’s still up and coming?”
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The producer also touched upon the fact that it has become increasingly expensive to produce films in the US. She shared that they shot the film in just 22 days and Todd hadn’t shot something in that short of time in years, so they planned every day wisely.
She asserted that they did everything in a systematic manner. “I don’t want to say there’s freedom in shooting for less money because that is identifying with the oppressor, but I think we had to adapt and pivot,” she added.
