The People’s Joker is a cinematic treat for the senses where writer, director and star Vera Drew (an Illinois native) tells a trans woman’s story through the lens of comic book characters. The Joker is a supervillain who debuted in the first issue of the comic book Batman.
Drew plays Joker the Harlequin, a closeted trans girl who moves to Gotham City to make it big as a comedian. This leads to navigating a new relationship while being haunted by ghosts of the past. Look for eye-popping visuals and impressive cameos from Tim Heidecker, Bob Odenkirk, Maria Bamford and Scott Aukerman, along the way.
Drew attended two screenings on April 26 and 27 at the Music Box Theatre. She talked about her personal journey while the movie played for a private interview with Windy City Times on day one.
Windy City Times: Congrats on this packed screening at the Music Box.
Vera Drew: I am so thankful. It has made today the easiest leg of the tour.
WCT: Have you traveled all over to promote the film?
VD: It’s not been too crazy. I have been to New York, LA, San Francisco and Dallas yesterday. The film festival run last year had me going all over. Thankfully, the movie still has momentum without all of the personal appearances.
WCT: Where did you grow up?
VD: I grew up in the south suburbs in Mokena, Illinois. I came up doing comedy and started when I was 13 years old. I did Second City in high school, then The iO Theater and Annoyance Theatre. I ended up going to film school at DePaul University. I moved to LA right away after school.
WCT: Were you always a comic book fan?
VD: Yes, they were the first books that read. My entry point was Batman Forever and Joel Schumacher’s Batman really tainted my view in the best way possible. It was operatic, colorful and wildly gay!
For me, Batman felt mythic as a kid and was close to other things I was into like Star Wars. The dimensions of otherness within all of the characters and the DC canon as a whole drew me to it. Even before I knew I was queer I felt like a weirdo.
WCT: Many of us did. You have good timing with this screening as the comic book convention is in Chicago this weekend.
VD: I couldn’t have planned it better. That has been the magic of this movie, because it was almost impossible to make in a lot of ways. I have had to let go in a lot of ways and hope that everything works out.
The release itself was like that too. The film was in limbo for a year and it was a miracle that it was distributed. Any movie gaining distribution these days is huge.
This was always supposed to be messy and loose, I guess.
WCT: Where did the tone of The People’s Joker come from?
VD: I went out of my way to make it a dark, irreverent, absurdist comedy and be really sweet at the same time. I always got the notes on anything I wrote or edited for other people about it being sincere or ironic. I never felt like there was anything wrong with being that way.
I really wanted this movie to be the most extreme version of that. One second the audience is in the middle of an Adult Swim style of humor that is offensive, manic and crazy, then suddenly viewers are in a queer romance.
That is the problem with movies in general these days. We are so locked into genre, especially in queer cinema, that it’s not allowed to be funny. I get a lot of pushback about having a queer villain in the movie. The story itself told me what it was as we made it, but I always knew to juggle a lot of tones. Once it became mixed media, and we built a community of artists around it, they were not treated as vendors, but collaborators.
It is a one-woman show in a cinematic space. That diverse aesthetic of it allows it to be tonally chaotic and that was fully intentional. I wanted it to feel like a movie made by the Joker! [laughs]
WCT: Was there a sequence that was really hard to make?
VD: There’s a big fight scene at the end of the movie made in the Batman: The Animated Series style, where the villains appear for a showdown against Batman. That sequence alone took three years to make. We started on that sequence before we even had a finished script. I had one animator who saw the scope of the movie and knew it would be tons of work. Just to capture that specific style of Batman with the way the cartoons were drawn—the women were very slender and the men had broad shoulders. We had to figure out trans bodies in that specific space.
It was an idea that seemed too hard to explore but became what the process was as I went along. This was based on the queer art I saw online and in alternative comic spaces with an autobiographical slant to it. I wanted to show this in movie form since I hadn’t seen it before.
WCT: What were some obstacles to overcome while making The People’s Joker?
VD: As people who watch the movie can tell, I have a lot of issues with the movie industry. This film was about me processing that. I have worked on so many cool things in my television editing career, but trying to get my own stuff out there was really hard. I would pitch things and people thought it was too weird, too trans, too gay or too whatever. I got tired of all of the “too-s!”
I decided to put what I had into this movie because I don’t know if I will ever get a chance to make a movie again. After the pandemic, I thought it was my last chance, so I put in all of my resources into it and cashed in every favor. I asked all of my friends to be in it and I also put all of myself in it while being honest and vulnerable. That was a scary thing to do, but it was for me. I was able to process things that I couldn’t understand unless I made something physical like this. The whole time in the back of my head I was thinking about 20 people would see it. I hope five of those 20 people would find something to connect with in it. I only thought the people who would really get it would be comedians.
I had frustrating conversations about representation with those around me, and I didn’t see anybody like me in movies and television. I still don’t. Leaning into that specificity and really being honest about my story was isolating at times even with this big collaborative process.
WCT: What have you heard from people who have seen the film so far?
VD: Now having it out there and seeing how that specificity relates to other people has shown me how many others feel just like me. It is all I can ask for and it’s lovely. The trans community’s response feels really good. I feel warm and embraced!
I feel less alone and I hear that other artists are inspired to make something after watching it.
WCT: I saw so many people dressed up like the Joker waiting in line for this screening. That must be exciting!
VD: I dreamed about this as a kid, but I didn’t think it would happen. The crew worked on this over Zoom much of the time, so I certainly didn’t think I would sell out a theater.
WCT: Many people work in a bubble and just cross their fingers that the project does well.
VD: This movie was the most process-oriented I have ever been. I think that is why it has healed my relationship with making art. The end product is when I say goodbye to it and I have not had a grieving process yet to let it go. These screenings are such a joy to me.
WCT: Are there different versions of it out there?
VD: The TIFF cut was the fresh paint version. I was finishing it the week before it premiered in Toronto. I hit the export button 30 minutes before I got in the car, so that cut was a mess!
We had a festival cut that we were screening last year where I had to replace an actor; as you know, Lorne Michaels is the primary villain in it. We had someone playing the part before that we had to recast because she is on SNL, so Maria Bamford did it instead. Maria knocks it out of the park.
There was music that I had made as cover songs that we couldn’t license because of legal baggage. I was working on the movie a month ago to finish it and add a new score.
That was scary because I screened it previously with other versions and I didn’t know if the new pace would work. There is a different pace to it with these new songs.
It is done now and this was always the journey it was supposed to be.
WCT: You no longer watch the film with the audience, but still attend screenings. Is this because it is triggering for you?
VD: It is so I can talk to people afterward. I can have interactions with fans. When I watch it I fully dissociate. The release itself has been beautiful and I am not complaining at all. I have now realized my issues with praise. I have every critic saying this movie is great, and I still have a hole in my heart where I need validation from everybody. It has been a valuable lesson where I need to take care of myself.
This movie has taught me how to do that. I started transcendental meditation while I was finishing the movie. So many artists burn themselves out and it’s why many die young. I want to make art so I can understand myself and enjoy it.
WCT: Would you ever make a sequel?
VD: Officially I have no plans for a sequel to this, although we tease one at the end. I think one day I will want to revisit these characters in some form. I feel by the end of the movie that Joker the Harlequin is her own person. She is no longer a parody and the potential to explore that somewhere else would be good. I care about these characters so much and they have helped me understand my life. I hope they are with me in 10 years when I process this chapter of my life, but I want to live more life first!
See The People’s Joker on the big screen at the historic Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Find tickets and showtimes at musicboxtheatre.com.