How Vera Drew parodied Joker and turned it into a revolutionary trans movie

Here & Queer is an interview series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.

There's never been a movie quite like The People's Joker, a radical DIY parody of comic book movies and an autobiographical trans coming-of-age narrative all rolled into one. And audiences everywhere are finally about to understand just how special it is. 

A year and a half after it had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, leading to rave reviews and some now resolved legal trouble, The People's Joker is making its way into cinemas across North America. And no one is happier about that news than its wildly talented writer, director, editor and star, Vera Drew.

Drew stopped by the set of Here & Queer to talk about the extraordinary journey of gettingThe People's Joker made, how she had to fight for the film's release, and why its arrival in theatres is so meaningful for the trans and queer people it represents.

The People's Joker started out, essentially, as a remix of Todd Phillips's 2019 film, Joker. Drew was more or less dared into making it.

"It was technically an artistic commission," Drew says, laughing. "I mean, it was the only art commission I've ever got in my life. And it was only $12 because it was just between friends."

That friend was Bri LeRose, who would go on to co-write the project with Drew.

"I was kind of looking to get into a big, weird, artistic thing that I could sort of throw myself into. And it was right around the time where Todd Phillips was complaining about how it's too hard to do comedy now because I guess Zoomers and trans people are too offended or whatever. So Bri and I were naturally, like, that's bullshit, because we're two of the rudest, funniest people we know. And we're both extremely gay. So let's make a parody of his art in making the rudest, most colourful, gayest superhero movie ever made."

Several years later, it is indeed the rudest, most colourful, gayest superhero movie ever made (even topping Batman & Robin, which is saying something). It is also being released in cinemas across Canada and the U.S., and it's already finding a passionate fanbase.

"The response has been very overwhelming and people are really affected by it," Drew says. "I've had a lot of people come out to me after screenings as trans or as queer or as questioning. And it felt very intense, but it also felt like this beautiful gift coming out of this. Like I never could have fathomed that I would make a piece of art that would resonate like this with people."

Drew says that her experience making the film has really validated how the trans experience and the queer experience are "no different than any other coming of age experience that people have."

"Everybody kind of reaches a point in their life where they have to confront their authenticity and sort of gut check that," she says. "And trans people, a lot of us do that externally and change our bodies and our appearances and our presentations. But everybody goes through that and it's cool because this film has shown me that my experience as a wildly gay trans woman can resonate with somebody who seemingly has nothing in common with me."

You can have your own experience with The People's Joker at a cinema near you this April.