Lady Gaga has addressed the bad press and disappointing box office returns of her latest film, “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
In an interview with Elle published Tuesday, the singer and actor shrugged the criticism off, saying, “People just sometimes don’t like some things.
“It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
She said that fear of failure is what is really damaging: “When that makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of. It’s part of the mayhem.”
Todd Phillips’ musical sequel, which featured Joaquin Phoenix returning to his Oscar-winning role as the DC villain alongside Lady Gaga, followed the success of the 2019 “Joker” film. The original film was once the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, earning $1.1 billion before being overtaken by Marvel Studios/Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” according to Deadline.
However, the sequel faced a significant backlash from audiences, receiving a D Cinemascore and opening to just $37.6 million in the U.S., compared to the first film’s impressive $96.2 million debut. It ultimately grossed $58.3 million domestically and $206.4 million worldwide, barely covering its $190 million production budget before marketing costs.
Among critics of the film was one of its actors, comedian Tim Dillon, who slammed “Joker: Folie à Deux” as “the worst film ever made.”
He made the remarks during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
“I think what happened, after the first ‘Joker,’ there was a lot of talk like, ‘Oh, this was loved by incels. This was loved by the wrong kinds of people,'” Dillon said of the Todd Phillips-directed movie,” according to People. “‘This sent the wrong kind of message. Male rage! Nihilism!’ All these think pieces.”
Dillon also took aim at the decision to incorporate music into the DC comic book-inspired movie.
“And then I think [they said], ‘What if we went the other way?’ And now they have Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga tap dancing to a point where it’s insane,” he continued.
The film, Dillon added, had “no plot.”
“We would sit there, me and these other guys were all dressed in these security outfits because we’re working at the Arkham Asylum, and I would turn to one of them and we’d hear this crap, and I’d go, ‘What the [expletive] is this?’ And they’d go, ‘This is going to bomb, man.’ I go, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen,'” he continued.
“We were talking about it at lunch, and we’d go, ‘What is the plot? Is there a plot? I don’t know, I think he falls in love with her in the prison?’ It’s not even hate-watchable. That’s how terrible it is.”
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