Christine Vachon Says She Prefers Pedro Pascal to Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Haynes’ ‘De Noche’: “He Was Born to Play the Role”

Hotshot indie producer Christine Vachon was a guest at the 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival, where she reflected on two very different experiences with Todd Haynes: the unexpected loss of Joaquin Phoenix from “De Noche” and the long afterlife of “Safe.”

Vachon suggested that while Phoenix’s abrupt exit from “De Noche” was initially “devastating,” particularly because it meant Haynes lost the chance to make a movie that year, she now sees a silver lining. The forced “do-over” brought Pedro Pascal into the project, and Vachon believes he may have been “born to play” the role. She called him “a revelation” and agreed with the moderator that “Pedro Pascal is better than Joaquin Phoenix anyway.”

The reset also allowed the production to find a better filming location, reinforcing Vachon’s sense that, despite the initial disaster, the project ultimately benefited from the unexpected change.

“De Noche” is a detective noir co-written by Haynes and Jon Raymond, set in 1930s L.A. and Mexico. It has been described by Haynes as a “button pusher” that could warrant an NC-17 rating. A Cannes 2027 premiere is no doubt being eyed for the film.

On Haynes’ “Safe,” Vachon offered a lesson about how difficult it is to predict a film’s cultural impact. She recalled that “Safe” initially performed poorly at the box office, and left some critics puzzled, but later a Village Voice poll of American film critics named it the best movie of the 1990s. Her takeaway was that some films simply arrive “too late or too soon.”

I love that Vachon mentioned, and still remembers, that Village Voice poll from 1999. At some point, it became my go-to checklist for films I might have missed from that decade. Below, you can find the top 15 films, some of whose inclusion I agree with, and others I do not.

1. Safe (Todd Haynes)
  2. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
  3. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
  4. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
  5. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese)
  6. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
  7. Naked (Mike Leigh)
  8. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
  9. Satantango (Bela Tarr)
10. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai)
11. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
12. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai)
13. Cold Water (Olivier Assayas)
14. Blue (Krystof Kieslowski)
15. Histoire Du Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard)

I’ll also add another seminal ‘90s poll, this one from Film Comment, which polled far more participants than the Village Voice. “Safe” finished at #15 on that list.

1. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
2. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
3. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
5. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese)
6. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
7. Histoire Du Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard)
8. Red (Krystof Kieslowski)
9. White (Krystof Kieslowski)
10. Through the Olive Tress (Abbas Kiarostami)
11. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
12. Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
13. Dream of Light (Victor Erice)
14. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
15. Safe (Todd Haynes)

All this to say, Haynes is a national treasure—watch “Safe” if you haven’t already. It’s one of Haynes’ defining works, a micro masterpiece that has only aged more beautifully. It’s one of the great allegorical treatments of the AIDS epidemic and, as it turns out, has gained even more relevance in the post-COVID era. Alongside “Carol,” “Far From Heaven” and “May December,” it’s a career-defining film for Haynes, and I very much look forward to “De Noche.”