Joker director Todd Phillips believes those typically on the liberal side of issues "can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda," saying in a new interview that noticing this amid lead-up coverage of the film has been an "eye-opening" experience.
In an interview with The Wrappublished Wednesday, Phillips said the movie wasn't made "to push buttons" and was instead solely designed to utilize the budget of a comic book movie in a Trojan Horse kind of way.
"I literally described to [star Joaquin Phoenix] at one point in those three months as like, 'Look at this as a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film.' It wasn't, 'We want to glorify this behavior.' It was literally like 'Let's make a real movie with a real budget and we'll call it fucking Joker.' That's what it was."
As for the violence-related controversy, which earlier this month saw Aurora shooting victims' families urging Warner Bros. to show support for gun safety advocacy groups, Phillips—as he's previously said in different ways—is confused.
"Isn't it good to have these discussions about these movies, about violence? Why is that a bad thing if the movie does lead to a discourse about it?" he asked, later explaining his assessment of the controversy as being much broader than the usual left/right split. He proposed that, in general, "outrage is a commodity" and "has been a commodity for a while."
TMZ writes that Landmark Theatres, owner of over 50 cinemas in the U.S., has implemented a no-costumes policy for Joker screenings. CEO Ted Mundorff says, "We are not allowing costumes, face painting or masks by either our employees or guests.”
Regal Cinemas told TMZ, "We do not believe the content or the existence of any movie is a cause or a signal for violence."
Previously, Phillips wondered why films like John Wick don't receive the same type of pushback as Joker:
