Joaquin Phoenix Walked Out of an Interview After Being Asked the Dumbest Question Ever
As children, we’re told there are no stupid questions. Robbie Collin, a film critic for The Telegraph definitively proved this wrong when, during an interview for Joker, he asked Joaquin Phoenix “Aren’t you worried that this film might perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it’s about, with potentially tragic results?”
This movie isn’t out yet and I am so tired of hearing this bullshit already. I’m mad to begin with because this stupid movie is supposed to be so good that I actually want to see it, now I have to listen to these ridiculous theories on how movies cause real world violence.
Joaquin Phoenix, for what it’s worth, answered this question the exact right way, by standing up and walking out.
Phoenix actually did answer this question previously, as reported by IGN, and he gave the best answer you can give without leaving or slapping the person who asked it in the mouth.
“Well, I think that, for most of us, you’re able to tell the difference between right and wrong. And those that aren’t are capable of interpreting anything in the way that they may want to. People misinterpret lyrics from songs. They misinterpret passages from books. So I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a filmmaker to teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong. I mean, to me, I think that that’s obvious.”
Just so we’re clear, no study has ever established that media violence leads to real-world violence. Not movies, not music, not comic books, not even video games.
And Phoenix makes a good point about people who claim to be inspired to kill because of media, too. The guy who shot Ronald Reagan did it because he wanted to f**k Jodie Foster, Charles Manson at one point claimed to have been inspired by The Beatles and Mark David Chapman read Catcher in the Rye after he shot John Lennon.
The real funny thing here is no one has ever claimed to have killed someone because they were inspired by the Joker.
I know what you’re thinking. “But didn’t that guy in Colorado dress up like the Joker while he shot up a movie theater playing a movie with The Joker in it?”
Well, no and no. The Aurora shooter was wearing all black, had orange and not green hair, never once claimed to have been inspired by The Joker, and the movie that was playing, The Dark Knight Rises, features villains Bane and Talia al Ghul, not the Joker, so maybe those Aurora families should have waited for the Bane movie to write a letter about how they’re ‘concerned’. In fact, before the rumors about The Joker popped up, the rumors were he dressed as Bane, whose black Mexican wrestler costume looks much closer to the shooter’s black mask and tactical gear outfit.
Basically, Joker is just a movie, supposedly a really good one, but still just a movie. And people don’t kill people because of movies. Ever.
