Joaquin Phoenix just learned why you shouldn’t mess with the gays.

The Joker actor was just days away from beginning filming for director Todd Haynes’ next film, a ‘30s-set love story between two men with enough explicit content to warrant an NC-17 rating. Phoenix himself developed the screenplay alongside Haynes and Jon Raymond, and Danny Ramirez was set to play his lover. Then, a mere five days before filming was scheduled to begin, Phoenix got “cold feet” and pulled out of the project, per Variety — and because the movie’s funding was dependent on Phoenix playing the lead, it means financial disaster for the film’s producers.

But this isn’t a textbook case of Hollywood casting a straight actor in a gay role and dealing with the consequences. No, this movie was reportedly all Phoenix’s idea to begin with, explicit queerness and all. One of the film’s producers, Christine Vachon, addressed the situation in a Facebook post.

“A version of this did happen,” she wrote, referencing an article about Phoenix dropping from the movie. “It has been a nightmare.”

“And PLEASE — if you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that ‘that’s what you get for casting a straight actor’ –DON’T,” Vachon continued. “This was HIS project that he brought to US.”

Clearly, all finger-pointing leads right back to Phoenix. The actor’s choice to drop from the movie so close to filming, thus leaving an entire film crew out of work, has earned him ridicule across the internet.

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Apparently, Phoenix is fine with method-acting as a murderous psychopath (and winning an Oscar for it), but pretending to have gay sex is a step too far — even though it was his idea to begin with.

On the other hand, maybe the whole situation is one extended case of method acting. Flaking on a major commitment at the last minute? Sounds pretty gay after all.

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