Christine Vachon is pissed Joaquin Phoenix wasted Todd Haynes' time

We still don’t have many details about what caused Joaquin Phoenix to flee the set of his collaboration with Todd Haynes. Both artists are staying tight-lipped about it, and Haynes’ longtime producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films doesn’t have any insider info. “Pretty much what happened is what’s out there for you to read. I don’t know any more than that. I would gossip if I had anything to gossip about,” she said at the San Sebastian Film Festival (via Deadline). 

To recap what is out there: Phoenix and Haynes were collaborating on a story for the untitled film, a gay romance that Phoenix supposedly pushed to go explicit as possible in its sex scenes. Then Phoenix bailed days before the shoot was about to start, with some sources suggesting he got “cold feet” about the content. That’s still unconfirmed, though Vachon’s comments—she previously said “a version of this did happen”—may give the rumors some credibility. 

But the he-said she-said isn’t what’s important; what’s important, Vachon noted in her remarks at San Sebastian, is that “Todd Haynes is 62. He’s not old but there’s a finite number of films that he will be able to do in his lifetime. I consider him one of the most extraordinary film artists of his generation. The idea that his time was wasted and a movie is not the result of all that time working with Joaquin is a tragedy to me,” she said. 

“That I can’t get over. The idea that we as a cultural community lost an opportunity to have a new movie by Todd Haynes is a tragedy,” the producer concluded. 

Phoenix has moved on to promoting his next movie, Joker: Folie Á Deux; during a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, he declined to comment on the Haynes situation, saying he didn’t think it would be “helpful.” Puck News previously reported that the film’s producers were considering legal action against Phoenix if he didn’t help to pay back financiers invested in the film and crew that had gathered for the shoot (via World Of Reel). As for Haynes, “There’s a big question mark above his head” as to what he’ll do now, Vachon told the San Sebastian crowd. He’s still set to work on a new miniseries with Kate Winslet for HBO.