'Joker' Extras Trapped in Subway Set for Hours Forced to Pee on the Tracks
The cruelty of the Joker became a little too real when extras on the set of the upcoming supervillain movie Joker were denied union-mandated breaks and locked in a subway car for over three hours. Reports indicate that the actors resorted to relieving themselves in between the cars.
On Wednesday, TMZ reported that extras from the film’s set inside a Brooklyn station last weekend were locked in a train car after working for two hours. Three more hours passed until the situation was “resolved.”
TMZ describes the scene as extras “banging on the subway doors asking to be let out because people needed to use the bathroom” and “eventually resorted to pissing on the tracks through the small spaces between cars.”
One of the extras sent a complaint to SAG-AFTRA, and both Variety and TMZ reported that a representative was sent to the set, with Variety writing that “the situation was resolved” with the screen actor’s union.
On SAG-AFTRA’s official website, the organization lays out its rules regarding breaks (“meal periods”), which must be “no less than thirty minutes” and must be held “within six hours” of call time. The rules are laid out below:
“The performer must be given the first meal break within six hours from the time of first call. The second meal break must be called within six hours from the time of call back from the first meal break. Each meal break must be no less than thirty minutes, but the Producer can deduct actual time up to one hour spent at meals.”
Joker, which stars actor Joaquim Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips, will tell the origins of the famed comic book villain and nemesis of Batman. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, Bryan Callen, and Shea Whigham. The film has been described as a 1980s crime thriller. Earlier rumors suggested that Batman’s deceased father, Thomas Wayne, would be portrayed as a Donald Trump-ish figure.
Joker will be released October 4, 2019.
