Hugh Grant Complains the Cinema He Saw Joker in Was Way 'Too Loud': 'Unendurable'
Hugh Grant found the terrifyingly sinister Joker “unendurable” — but not for the reasons you may think.
The actor, 59, went to see Todd Phillips’ origins story about the Batman super-villain at a local cinema in London last week, and complained that his trip had been “pointless” due to the theater’s deafening volume.
“Am I old or is the cinema MUCH TOO LOUD? Unendurable. Pointless. @vuecinemas,” Grant wrote on Twitter during the screening.
Publicists for the cinema company responded to the star the next day writing: “I’m so sorry for any disappointment felt with the volume levels in our venues Hugh, please be assured we do regularly check these to ensure they comply to health and safety standards. I’ll ensure your feedback is passed on to the relevant teams.”
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Am I old or is the cinema MUCH TOO LOUD? Unendurable. Pointless. @vuecinemas
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) October 5, 2019
When Grant pointed out that they did not know which location he was at, they asked him for the venue details and which film he had seen.
The Four Wedding and a Funeral star responded to their inquiry with a quip, “Joker. But joke was on us.”
While Grant’s experience with Joker was less than enjoyable, the film itself has also been plagued with controversy since starting out strong with a Golden Lion award win at its Venice Film Festival debut last month.
“I saw #Joker — and it is unlike anything before it,” Brandon Davis of ComicBook.com tweeted after its Toronto Film Festival screening. “The movie is dark, thrilling, and chilling. An insane masterpiece. The movie absolutely transcends being a comic book film and acts as a character study which, at times, will make audiences uncomfortable in wild ways.”
RELATED: Joaquin Phoenix Leaves Interview After Being Asked If Joker Will ‘Inspire’ Violence: Report
The movie has been criticized for showing sympathy to its murderous titular character, played by Joaquin Phoenix. The actor walked out of a recent interview with U.K.’s The Telegraph when asked about the violence in the film.
During the interview, journalist Robbie Collin asked Phoenix if he was worried the movie might “perversely end up inspiring exactly the kind of people it’s about, with potentially tragic results.”
“Why? Why would you…? No, no,” Phoenix said before leaving the room, according to Collin.
The Telegraph reports Phoenix left the interview for an hour as he talked to a press agent with Warner Bros., the studio behind the Todd Phillips-directed film. The outlet reports the actor returned and explained he panicked because he did not consider the question.
RELATED: Joaquin Phoenix Defends Joker as Families of Shooting Victims Voice Fears Over Violent Film
Ahead of the film’s Oct. 4 release, Phoenix said he has full trust in movie audiences to know what’s right and wrong when viewing the film.
“Well, I think that, for most of us, you’re able to tell the difference between right and wrong,” he said at a press conference for Joker, according to IGN. “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.”
Joker, rated R, is in theaters now.
