It took Joaquin Phoenix a bit to find the version of the character he wanted to bring to the screen. That meant plenty of takes, especially early on, attempting to root out the core of the character, and ironically it really came to fruition with one scene that didn't even make it into the final cut of the movie. Phoenix was accepting Variety's Creative Impact in Directing Award during the Palm Springs Film Festival, and during his speech, he revealed what the scene was and how it really changed his take on the character. "He always encouraged me to fail, which I did a lot. A few weeks into shooting I think it became unbearable for him and we were shooting a scene, it was like the fourth take, and I said well that's about...I don't know what else I can do...that was all the ideas I have', and he said 'I think you should try another one'. I said 'okay', so I tried another one and basically just did some more bullshit, and he said 'I think you should try another one', and he wasn't specific because I think he knew that I had to find it on my own, and I just decided to stop all of my actory stuff and just to listen to the other actor and to just be aware of the space that I was in and we did this take and it felt really good, and he came out and said 'that was a good take'. I said 'yeah, it felt good to me'. He said 'what was that', and I said 'sincerity'. And he said 'well you should be sincere more often'" "It was a scene that was ultimately cut out of the movie but it ended up being kind of the most important scene in the movie because it helped me find sincerity," Phoenix said.