‘Joker 2’ Actor Behind That Twist Ending Kept It a Secret for Two Years. He’s Now Speaking Out: Todd Phillips ‘Has Balls to Make Such a Bold Swing’
SPOILER ALERT: This story includes details about the ending of “Joker: Folie à Deux.“
Connor Storrie, the actor who plays the Arkham Asylum inmate who kills Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) at the end of “Joker: Folie à Deux,” said in an interview with TMZ that he’s not surprised the twist ending has outraged fanboys. The sequel’s final moments imply that Storrie’s character is the real Joker and was inspired by Arthur, who he stabs to death and then uses the blade to carve a smile into his cheeks. Storrie spent two years keeping the twist under wraps.
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“It felt very clear that this is Joaquin’s movie. It’s following Arthur. I saw my place in that,” Storrie said about the role and if he’ll keep playing Joker. “It’s not like, ‘Hey this is where I am going. This is who I am.’ It is a part of Arthur’s story more than it is becoming anything else after that. That was very clear.”
Storrie said he was just so excited to be on set and not really thinking about what the twist ending could mean for his future as the Batman villain.
“I wasn’t even considering what that could mean or where it could go,” the actor said. “Obviously the Joker has a huge following. I’d even say cult following. I just couldn’t believe I was there and what I was doing. It was so under wraps. I didn’t know anything else about the movie except that part in it. They were very serious. I didn’t say anything to anyone for two years.”
The twist ending, along with the film’s musical sequences, have resulted in “Joker: Folie à Deux” being one of the most controversial and divisive Hollywood tentpoles in recent memory. The movie has flopped at the box office, too, with a $37 million domestic opening.
“It was polarizing before the movie even came out, which I think is a good thing,” Storrie told TMZ. “When it was announced that it was a musical people from the jump were like, ‘What?’ I was like that, too. What does that even mean or look like? Especially because the first one was so raw and grimy. It was polarizing before it was even seen. The reaction makes sense. I can’t speak for anyone like Todd but they knew that was the case, too. You don’t make such a big swing like that without knowing it gives people the opportunity to not get behind your choices.”
Storrie argued that he’d “rather things be polarizing than things be boring or squeaky clean” and commended director and co-writer Todd Phillips “for having the balls to make such a bold swing, especially knowing there’s fanatics following Joker and the praise the first movie got. I am not shocked people are either pro or against what goes down in it.”
“Joker: Folie à Deux” is now playing in theaters nationwide from Warner Bros.
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