A producer has spoken out about Joaquin Phoenix’s reported exit from an untitled gay romance film only days before shooting was set to begin.
For context, Variety reported on Friday that the Oscar-winning actor had suddenly dropped out of Todd Haynes’s upcoming movie, previously described by the director as a “love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content.”
Neither Joaquin nor Todd has publicly addressed the news. However, film producer Christine Vachon — whose production company, Killer Films, had been attached to the movie — described the situation as a “nightmare” in a since-deleted social media post over the weekend.
Notably, Joaquin worked on the screenplay and was the one who brought it to Todd in the first place. Christine referred to this in her Facebook post while responding to backlash the movie received over the decision to put Joaquin, a straight man, in the lead role in a gay romance.
In September last year, Todd spoke to Variety about how Joaquin came up with the initial idea for the story, saying: “Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.”
BuzzFeed has contacted Joaquin’s representative for comment.
