Joker: Folie à Deux actor slams movie as 'the worst film ever made'

The calls are coming from inside Arkham Asylum.

Comedian Tim Dillon, who appeared in last month’s Joker: Folie à Deux, recently told podcaster Joe Rogan that the Joaquin Phoenix–Lady Gaga movie is "the worst film ever made."

Dillon, who had a small role as an Arkham guard in the sequel to the 2019 movie Joker, appeared on Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on Nov. 6 to discuss his experience working on Todd Phillips’ comic book film.

“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, 39, said. “This sent the wrong kind of message. Male rage! Nihilism! All these think pieces."

The first Joker film told the story of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), who comes to embrace violence as he shuffles through life as an alienated social misfit in Gotham. It was a 2020 nominee for Best Picture, and Phoenix walked away with the Best Actor award. Joker grossed over $1 billion worldwide. 

The sequel, meanwhile, took a different approach from the grim and grimy Joker by incorporating music and dancing. And that’s one of the decisions Dillon identified as a reason for Folie à Deux’s failure.

“I think [they asked], 'What if we went the other way?'” he told Rogen. “And now they have Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga tap dancing to a point where it’s insane.”

Another flaw in the movie, according to Dillon, was its lack of plot, which he and his fellow supporting actors discussed during filming.

“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 f— is this?’” Dillon said. “And they’d go, ‘This is going to bomb, man.’ I go, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’

He also told Rogan, “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?’”

Many critics agreed with Dillon’s assessment. Joker: Folie à Deux, which tells the story of an incarcerated Arthur falling in love with Gaga’s villain-to-be Lee Quinzel, received decidedly mixed reviews from critics. It also bombed at the box office, earning as much over its debut weekend — $40 million — as the first film earned in one day.

Prior to the sequel’s release, Phillips defended his artistic choices, telling EW, “What happens when a guy who hears music inside his head finds love for the first time in his life? Maybe the music that he hears inside his head starts coming out. Why wouldn’t that music come out when he meets somebody who gives him the time of day? His biggest issue in the first movie, outside of childhood trauma, was a severe lack of love.”

In the end, Dillon said, the film failed on all levels. 

“It’s not even hate-watchable. That’s how terrible it is.”