Joaquin Phoenix quits Todd Haynes’ gay romance movie at late stage

Napoleon actor Joaquin Phoenix has reportedly dropped out of an untitled gay romance movie after getting 'cold feet' about it. Photo / Getty Images

‘Cold feet’ reportedly led the actor to drop out of the movie days before filming was set to begin.

Concerns about the “graphic nature” of sex scenes have reportedly prompted Joaquin Phoenix to drop out of Todd Haynes’ untitled gay romance movie five days before filming was due to begin.

The 49-year-old Oscar-winning actor reportedly got “cold feet” and exited the project, days before the film was set to start shooting in Guadalajara, Mexico, Variety reports.

Entire sets had already been built on location and there is now doubt about the future of the movie, as it reportedly hinged on Phoenix’s casting.

“The project is in peril ... The crew is now out of work, and stakeholders in the film still need to be paid. Losses could exceed seven figures,” a source told Variety.

Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez, 31, had been cast opposite Phoenix in the movie, about two men who are intense lovers and leave California for Mexico.

The film was due to feature a relationship that would “challenge” audiences and it has been speculated that Phoenix quit due to the “graphic nature of the film’s sex scenes”.

However, Haynes previously revealed Phoenix brought the script to him and was “pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually”.

“It’s a love story between two men set in the ‘30s that has explicit sexual content that or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” Haynes told Variety in 2023.

“One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in LA.

“They have to flee LA ultimately and go to Mexico but it’s a love story and with a strong sexual component.

US actor Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his role in the 2019 thriller Joker. Photo / Warner Bros. Pictures

“And what was so remarkable is that it all started with Joaquin having some ideas and some thoughts and just questions and images.

“He had fragments of ideas and then I started to formulate them into an actual narrative.

“And then I brought my wonderful, brilliant friend John Raymond, with whom I collaborated with on Mildred Pierce, into the process.

“Basically, it was just this wonderful, organic way to create the script.

“And Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.”