Joaquin Phoenix Fainted on Set of Film 'Beau Is Afraid' During Intense Scene: 'Knew it Was Bad'

"There was a scene that was very intense for Patti LuPone, and it was a shot that was on Patti — it was not on him — and all of a sudden, he fell out of frame," writer-director Ari Aster said

Joaquin Phoenix fainted while filming an intense scene for his new film, Beau is Afraid.

On Saturday, writer-director Ari Aster revealed during a Q&A moderated by Emma Stone at a surprise screening of the movie in New York that Phoenix, 48, had collapsed on set during an emotionally intense scene.

"There was a scene that was very intense for Patti [LuPone], and it was a shot that was on Patti — it was not on him — and all of a sudden, [Phoenix] fell out of frame," Aster, 36, said, according to Deadline.

"I was really pissed 'cause it was a really good take. It felt confusing so I went around the corner, and he was collapsed," he 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," Aster said of Phoenix. "It's very poetic that he collapsed in somebody else's shot."

Related:Joaquin Phoenix Undertakes an Epic Adventure in First Trailer for New Movie Beau Is Afraid

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In January, A24 released the official trailer for Beau Is Afraid, Aster's first movie since 2019's Midsommar, which appears to follows Phoenix's title character Beau over a long period of his life.

An official logline for the film — which hints at Aster's "bold and ingeniously depraved" style — reads that Beau Is Afraid is an "epic new odyssey" in which Beau, described as a paranoid man, undertakes a journey to "get home to his mother," played by LuPone, 73.

Aside from Phoenix and LuPone, the film also stars Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Denis Ménochet, Kylie Rogers, Richard Kind, Armen Nahapetian, Zoe Lister-Jones and Parker Posey.

Beau Is Afraid releases exclusively in theaters April 21.

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