Page 30 - The Hollywood Reporter (January 2020)

BEST PICTURE than $1 billion globally. In the midst of a busy
awards season, Koskoff is already prep-
Joker ping her next film, Scorsese and Leonardo

DiCaprio’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and jug-
gling campaign duties on The Irishman as well.
But she took some time to talk with THR about
the most stressful moments on the Joker set,
the prospect of a sequel and why Scorsese still
Joaquin Phoenix delivers an intense, at times disturbing hasn’t seen the movie.
performance in Todd Phillips’ thriller that examines the origins
Knowing what Joaquin Phoenix went through
of Gotham City’s criminal mastermind BY AARON COUCH
on the role, what did his Golden Globes speech
mean to you?
mma Tillinger Koskoff has built But her gamble paid off. The R-rated Warner EMMA TILLINGER KOSKOFF From day one of
a reputation as Martin Scorsese’s Bros. project, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as principal photography, I literally was like,
right hand, working her way up loner Arthur Fleck as he becomes Gotham’s “This is the most extraordinary acting I have
from an assistant on 2004’s The psychopathic criminal mastermind, has ever had the privilege of watching up close on
E Aviator to sharing a 2020 Oscar nabbed the most Oscar nominations of the the day.” I was mesmerized for the 57 days of
nomination with the filmmaker for The year (11 nods, including best picture, best shooting that followed. I was sort of glossed
Irishman. But just four days after ending a 108- director and best actor) and has earned more over, watching him up there, because I was so
day shoot on the director’s Netflix film, Koskoff

found herself in a scouting van with Todd
Phillips, taking a leap of faith with another
director. Joker may not have seemed like a “With the comic book universe completely exploding, JOKER: NIKO TAVERNISE/WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT (2). KOSKOFF: STEFANIA D’ALESSANDRO/WIREIMAGE.
natural move for Koskoff, who hadn’t kept up I thought it would be just another standard iteration.
with comic book films since working as Uma
Thurman’s assistant on Batman & Robin more Then I read the script.” ZAZIE BEETZ
than 20 years earlier — and who had never
produced a movie not directed by Scorsese.

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