Joaquin Phoenix 'fainted' on set of 'Beau Is Afraid', reveals director

Joaquin Phoenix's film Beau Is Afraid had a surprise screening on Friday, and the director on the film Ari Aster recalled a moment when the actor fainted on the set.

Aster pulled an April Fool’s prank on moviegoers, who were expecting to see a screening of Midsommar but ended up enjoying the his newest film Beau Is Afraid starring the Joker actor.

At the end of the three-hour screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in New York, Emma Stone moderated a Q&A with Aster and Phoenix, who introduced the film to the audience.

While talking about his experience working with the actor, Aster shared an incident from the set of the film where Phoenix fainted while Patti LuPone, who plays his mother in the movie, was shooting her scene.

"There was a scene that was very intense for Patti and it was a shot that was on Patti, it was not on him and all of a sudden he fell out of frame," Aster recalled. "I was really pissed ’cause it was a really good take. It felt confusing so I went around the corner and he was collapsed."

Aster continued, "I knew it was bad because he was letting people touch him and people were tending to him and he was allowing it. The point is that he fainted in somebody else’s take, he wasn’t on camera and he was helping them, he was in it for them to the point where he collapsed. It’s very poetic that he collapsed in somebody else’s shot."

A24’s Beau Is Afraid depicts the story of "a paranoid man [who] embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother." The film is set to debut in theaters on April 21, 2023.