Joaquin Phoenix reveals 'I talked to Christopher Nolan' about playing Joker in 'The Dark Knight', but 'I wasn't ready at the time'

Joaquin Phoenix revealed for the first time during a recent interview on “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin” that he was approached to play Christopher Nolan's Joker for 2008's “The Dark Knight,” which famously starred Heath Ledger as Gotham's crime prince. did Phoenix admitted that he wasn't ready to play a Batman villain when Nolan was making “The Dark Knight.”

“I remember talking to Chris Nolan about 'The Dark Knight' and for whatever reason it didn't happen,” Phoenix said. “I wasn't ready then. It's one of those things where it's like, 'What's in me that's not doing this?' And it's not about me. There is something else. There's another one that's going to do something. … I can't imagine what would have happened if we didn't have Heath Ledger in that movie, right?

“I don't know if Christopher Nolan came up to me and said, 'You must be the one.' I can't remember how we met, but I know we did,” Phoenix added. “I had a feeling I shouldn't do it, but maybe he was like, 'That's not the guy.'”

Ledger's critically acclaimed performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” won him a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Phoenix will finally be set to play the Joker for director Todd Phillips in 2019's “Joker,” which won him an Oscar for best actor. The film was a box office hit grossing over $1 billion worldwide and spawned a sequel, this year's “Joker: Folie à Deux” with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. But the sequel bombed with critics and audiences and has grossed just $57 million at the domestic box office since opening in theaters on Oct. 4. The sequel has a worldwide gross of $201 million to date.

A recent report by THR claims that Nolan influenced the original “Joker” movie by blocking Phillips' idea to end the film by carving a smile onto the Joker's face. The facial scar is Ledger's Joker's iconic look from “The Dark Knight,” so Nolan reportedly didn't want to repeat it with Phoenix. However, “Folly à Deux” ends with a character with a smile on his face, which Phillips was allegedly allowed to do after Nolan was no longer in business with Warner Bros.

Listen to Phoenix's full interview on “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin” in the video below.