Shea Whigham shares a few details about his Joker character

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The cast of Todd Phillips' JOKER film is packed with extraordinary actors, including Shea Whigham, best known for his roles in Boardwalk Empire, Fargo, and much more. The actor recently spoke with Collider and dropped a few details about his character and gushed about what an incredible experience working on the project has been.

I’ll say this, Bill Camp, from The Night Of, is one of our great actors. He’s finally getting his due. He and I play two cops from Gotham P.D., in 1981 when the city was tough. We’re investigating something that’s just happened, at the start of the piece. We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, and it leads to where it leads to. You know, it’s rare that I’ve been on a set where it feels like it crackles. It’s pretty amazing . . .I want to have an experience. I don’t call it a job. I don’t say that I have a job. I have a gig, or a piece, or a film, or a show, but it’s never a job . . . We’re having an experience on Joker.

Bill Camp and Shea Whigham as a couple of cops in '80s Gotham? Sign me up. The actor was also full of praise for Joaquin Phoenix, who will be starring in the film as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who becomes the Joker "For me, it’s as good as it gets. I’m flowing back and forth between television and film, and it’s not lost on me, to work with Joaquin [Phoenix] and to see what he’s doing," Whigham added. "And Todd Phillips has put this amazing script together It’s the origin story. People haven’t seen how the Joker becomes the Joker, and oh, my God, man, it’s incredible. It really is." JOKER will also star Robert De Niro as a talk show host who is somehow instrumental in the Joker’s origin, Marc Maron as an agent on De Niro’s talk show who plays a part in booking Phoenix’s character, Frances Conroy as the Joker's mother, Zazie Beetz as a single mother who catches the interest of the man who will become the Clown Prince of Crime, and Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne.

JOKER is set for an October 4, 2019 release.