Todd Phillips in an interview: “Everyone in Hollywood used to be addicted to it”

“Joker” creator Todd Phillips is a blockbuster director but also a professional-level poker player. A conversation about gambling nature, high stakes against all the rules – and his inexplicable anger at the present.

He started with a punk rock documentary and the self-founded “New York Underground Film Festival”, then came teen comedies and the three film-cracking friends in his incredibly successful “Hangover” trilogy. The world wasn’t prepared for Todd Phillips’ next thing: his comic-film-cum-social drama “Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix was a risk and an unexpectedly dark global success that still resonates today. How can you continue such a coup? The lanky 53-year-old welcomes guests to an enchanted hotel in Venice, a boat ride away from the hustle and bustle of the big festival premiere.