Joker / The Bathroom Scene / Hildur Guðnadóttir

One of the most important scenes from “Joker” takes place right after Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck guns down three Wall Street workers on the New York subway and runs into a bathroom to calm himself. He does so with a creepy dance to the unsettling string score by Hildur.

But the killer dance was not in the original script. Phoenix improvised on set whilst listening to the music Hildur had written.

“It was just so incredible to see how Joaquin channeled exactly what I felt when I wrote the music,” said Hildur during the Oscar’s press room interview.

Anyone who’s seen the film will agree that the soundtrack plays a big part in showing Arthur’s shocking transformation into Joker.

Duration: 2.00
Instrumentation: 1 timp + 2 perc // synth, strings, amplified solo-cello // chorus opt.