Joker’s Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips forced to defend film even before it has hit cinemas – not that it bothers them … much
- It’s astounding how easily the far left can sound like the far right, director and co-writer Phillips says amid talk that Joker is dangerous and irresponsible
- Phoenix, who found portraying the lead character uncomfortable, says, ‘I don’t think it’s the filmmaker’s responsibility to teach morality’
There may be no such thing as bad publicity, but the spotlight on Joker is testing the limits of that old cliché.
The origin story about the classic Batman villain has inspired pieces both in defence of and against the movie. It’s been hailed as the thing that’s going to finally get Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar and also decried for being dangerous, irresponsible and even “incel-friendly”. (Incels are members of an online subculture who characterise themselves as involuntarily celibate – unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one)
Last week, some parents of victims of a deadly 2012 mass shooting at a cinema in Aurora, in the American state of Colorado, even wrote to the chief executive of film studio Warner Bros. asking for support for anti-gun causes. The studio issued a statement in response saying that Joker is not “an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind”.
In his 80 years as part of the culture, the Joker has always had a way of getting under people’s skin – whether it’s because of who the character appeals to, what he represents or even the stories actors tell about how they got into character. But perhaps the biggest irony of all this time around is that for all the discourse and hand-wringing, the film has yet to even open in cinemas. That doesn’t happen until Thursday.