Warner Bros. told the access media to go take a hike for the upcoming Joker red carpet event that will take place in Hollywood at the famous TCL Chinese Theatre.

A Warner Bros. spokesperson told Variety there will not be any interview press on the red carpet for the event. The spokesperson stated, “Our red carpet is comprised of photographers only, a lot has been said about ‘Joker,’ and we just feel it’s time for people to see the film.”

The interview press have been openly hostile towards Joker and a number of the reviews specifically review bombed the film due to their political ideology. (Related: Woke Rotten Tomatoes Reviewers Tank Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker Critic Score)

Actor Joaquin Phoenix walked out of an interview with The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin. Collin asked if Phoenix was “worried that this film might perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it’s about, with potentially tragic results?” Phoenix reportedly, responded saying, ” Why? Why would you … ? No, no.” He then got up and left. Collin reported, “Phoenix panicked, he later explains, because the question genuinely hadn’t crossed his mind before – then asks me, not for the last time, what an intelligent answer might have sounded like.” (Related: Joaquin Phoenix Walked Out of Joker Interview After Question About Film’s Violence)

Not only did Phoenix walk out, but director Todd Phillips also took issue with the critics and the press coverage of the film. Phillips described critics slamming the film for its violence as “bizarre.” (Related: Director Todd Phillips Describes Joker Critics Slamming The Film for Its Violence as “Bizarre”)

In a recent interview with TheWrap, Phillips expresses his frustration with critics lampooning the film for its portrayl of violence.

“We didn’t make the movie to push buttons. I literally described to Joaquin 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 f–ing Joker’. That’s what it was.”

He then criticizes them and specifically takes aim at the “far left.”

“I think it’s because outrage is a commodity, I think it’s something that has been a commodity for a while. What’s outstanding to me in this discourse in this movie is how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. It’s really been eye opening for me.”

A select number of family members of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shooting attempted to use the media-created controversy around the movie as an attempt to push for gun control. They sent a letter to Warner Bros. calling for the film studio to engage in gun control activities. However, the letter started off with them admitting they had not seen the film and were going based off what they had read from the critics, “When we learned that Warner Bros. was releasing a movie called “Joker” that presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story, it gave us pause.” (Related: Valiant Comics Editor Heather Antos Falsely Claims James Holmes Was Inspired by Joker)

At least one family member of the Aurora shooting noted his daughter would not have agreed with the letter.

Warner Bros. responded in a statement. (Related: Warner Bros. Responds to Joker “Controversy,” U.S. Army Sends Out Warning About Incels)

It partially reads:

“Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”

What do you make of Warner Bros. decision to bar red carpet interviewers from their screening of Joker in Hollywood?

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