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What about the laugh. How did you come up with that?

That was based on people (suffering from pathological laughter) disorder and I watched videos. There’s a description in the script that said, ‘It’s almost painful.’ I thought that was such a brilliant way to describe the laugh. It allowed me to find a motivation for the laugh that was emotional … There are different interpretations as to where that laugh comes from, which I don’t think we ever really answer. Either it’s a disorder, based on physical trauma that he experienced, or it’s Joker, which is the suppressed part of Arthur, trying to emerge. So it’s motivated by something. Hopefully, we found something that’s good.

Were you scared the first time you did the laugh?

I actually asked (Todd) to audition me. He came over to my house and I said to him, ‘I need to try and do this laugh because I know that there are going to be days where we’re pressed for time and if I can’t find it now with you, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to find it when we need it.’ So he came over to my house and it took me several minutes, at least five if not more. I just stood in front of him. He was sitting on my couch and I was standing in front of him, and at some point I worried it wasn’t going to happen. Then I did something and I asked him, ‘Are we close?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ That felt good and gave me confidence, but I don’t really think I found the laugh until we were several weeks into shooting.

You mentioned at the beginning not really being into this world, but after going through and doing your own interpretation of Joker, do you have any thoughts on why that character has resonated?