As Joker: Folie à Deux wraps up its theatrical run, Joaquin Phoenix has revealed this wasn't his first brush with the Clown Prince of Crime.

In a recent interview with Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, Phoenix revealed that he was asked to play the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.

"I remember I talked to Chris Nolan about The Dark Knight and that didn’t happen for whatever reason," said Phoenix. "I wasn’t ready then. That’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘What is in me that’s not doing this?’ And it’s not about me. There’s something else. There’s another person who is going to do something. … I can’t imagine what it would be if we didn’t have Heath Ledger’s performance in that film, right?"

He went on to add, "I don’t know whether Christopher Nolan was coming to me saying, ‘You’re definitely the person.’ I can’t remember the context of how we met, but I know we met. My feeling was I shouldn’t do this, but maybe he also was like, ‘He’s not the guy.'"

Ledger famously went on to play the role to critical acclaim, and was awarded an Academy Award posthumously for his work.

Joker: Folie à Deux is currently in theaters and will be released digitally on Tuesday, Oct. 29.