Joaquin Phoenix walks out of interview when asked about violence in new film Joker

Joaquin Phoenix has walked out of an interview while promoting his new film, Joker.

The actor — who plays the masked madman in the upcoming thriller — abruptly got up from his seat and left the room when asked by a journalist from The Telegraph about the R-rated movie possibly inciting acts of violence. 

"Aren't you worried that this film might perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it's about, with potentially tragic results?" quizzed the reporter. 

"Why? Why would you…? No, no," 44-year-old Phoenix replied, before leaving the room.

According to The Telegraph, it took one hour for the actor to be coaxed by a Warner Bros rep into returning to the room to finish the interview. And while Phoenix didn't answer the question upon his return, the reporter noted that the actor "panicked... because the question genuinely hadn't crossed his mind before."

The topic of violence had been raised with Todd Phillips in previous interviews, with the director explaining that they were "careful" about portraying violence in the movie. 

"A lot of people assume, or think, it's going to be a really violent movie — but if you break it down to the amount of people that he has an issue with, I think the reason it affects you differently is because we tried to paint it with as realistic a brush as possible," Phillips told AP recently. 

"I mean, you could watch a movie like John Wick 3 and there's a much higher amount of violence — but when it comes [in Joker], it feels like a punch in the stomach. It is all just a balancing act of tone."