Quentin Tarantino has hit back at trolls who slammed him for defending the critically panned ‘Joker’ sequel.
The ‘Pulp Fiction’ auteur, 61, made headlines in late October when he said he enjoyed ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ amid an outpouring of hatred from reporters and fans over the film, and saying its lead actor Joaquin Phoenix, 50, gave “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life in this movie”.
He has now told ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ about the wave of toxic reactions he got for his declaration: “I go on a show and I say that I like ‘Joker 2’. Now there’s 150 articles on it.
“One person listens to the thing and writes an article about it and there’s 150 rip-off articles on that.
“And then you read the comments: ‘Quentin is a f****** a******’. ‘That movie f****** sucks’. ‘He’s a f****** a****** for saying that’.
“Why am I a f****** a******? I liked the f****** movie! That makes me a f****** a******?
“You either like the movie or you don’t – I’m not plugging the movie, I’m not doing anything.
“I’m just saying I like it. Who gives a f*** what I like? What do you care what the f*** I like?”
“Then they say I’m a f****** a****** for not seeing something.
“What the f*** do you care what I see or don’t see? Someone will say, ‘Well I think he’s missing out’.
“Well, I am sure there is a lot of s*** I could say you’re missing out on and I don’t care if you miss out on.”
Quentin issued his defence of ‘Joker 2’ on ‘The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast’, helmed by the ‘American Psycho’ author.
It came after the film was hammered in reviews and bombed at the box office, earning only $58 million domestically and $206 million worldwide – a massive drop in the $1 billion gross of 2019’s original ‘Joker’ movie.
Quentin told 60-year-old Bret: “I really, really liked it, really. A lot. Like, tremendously, and I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking... and I’m just nihilistic enough to kind of enjoy a movie that doesn’t quite work as a movie or that’s like a big, giant mess to some degree.”
