LaKeith Stanfield Really Wants to Make a 'Joker' Movie with His 'Uncut Gems' Directors

Joaquin Phoenix is about to win an Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker, but Uncut Gems star LaKeith Stanfield thinks that he could be the one to bring even more to the role that’s already been played by a plethora of actors. And he wants to bring his frenetically-paced Uncut Gems directors, The Safdie Brothers, along with him.

“What I’d bring to it would have a lot to do with who I collaborate with, and how the story’s written and what world we exist in, and then I’ll go do my lil magic,” he told Collider in an interview, before adding who his choice for director would be. “Wouldn’t it be crazy if me and the Safdies did something like that?”

Before they were behind Adam Sandler’s masterful 2019 performance (which was unforgivably snubbed for an Oscar nomination), the Josh and Benny Safdie also helped Robert Pattinson along to one of his greatest performances in 2017’s Good Time. Like Gems, Good Time is a movie that moves at an otherworldly pace, is set in New York City, and is crazed and unhinged in a way that’s a thrill to watch on screen.

Stanfield’s love of the Joker has been well-documented. More than a year ago, he told Deadline that it was a forgone conclusion that, eventually, he would play Batman’s iconic foe. “I want people to dress up as me as black Joker, when that inevitably happens,” he said.

While at that time, it was before Joker and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was seen by anyone, he still clearly had a lot of ambition for what he could do with the character. “I just think there are so many things that haven’t been touched yet in terms of how the performance can be delivered, when I make the movie myself.”

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The Sorry to Bother You, Knives Out, and Atlanta star is such a fan, in fact, that he did his own cosplay at the Los Angeles premiere of Joker. He showed up on the red carpet in full face paint last year, and said last week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he filmed his own Joker movie right afterwards. “I make my own Joker movies at home with my own personal camera,” he said. “All you gotta do is just dress up and make your own…I still had the makeup on, so I was like ‘just keep going with it.”

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And while Phoenix is far from the first to play the Joker (the list also includes Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, and others), Stanfield isn’t at all put off by the popularity of Phoenix’s take, or anyone else possibly thinking the character has been done enough.

“It makes me go ‘wait until they see me do it,'” he told Kimmel. Color us intrigued!

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