Rockstar Games released the first trailer for GTA 6 earlier this month and garnered praise from gamers all over the world, but it hasn’t gone down well with everyone. The trailer featured several real-life moments from the state of Florida, and one of them was the appearance of Lawrence Sullivan, also known as the Florida Joker, with face tattoos resembling the Joker.
He demanded money from Rockstar Games for using his “likeness,” and now Roger Clark from Red Dead Redemption 2 has reacted to him and said he should use this to his advantage rather than trying to get money from Rockstar Games.
RDR2 Actor Roger Clark Slams Florida Joker for GTA 6 Demands
The appearance of a man taken to court with purple hair and facial tattoos in the GTA 6 trailer is one of the most talked-about moments among fans, alongside other viral moments. It soon reached the man with similar features from his 2017 mugshot, Lawrence Sullivan, AKA Florida Joker, who saw an opportunity to get some money and called out Rockstar Games for being inspired by him.
Lawrence Sullivan reacted to the trailer and stated that Rockstar took his “likeness” and demanded 2 million dollars from the developer. Sullivan posted a TikTok saying that he should be compensated, and although it resulted in fans making fun of him, it still hasn’t stopped him from pursuing it. In the TikTok, Sullivan stated:
Florida Joker, you might have seen that character in GTA 6, they just dropped the trailer. You know they got that character with the face tattoos, you know who they got that inspired by? By me. Just look me up. GTA, we gotta talk.
He later uploaded another TikTok and said:
We got to talk, GTA. We gotta talk. Or not, you got to give me like a mil or two. Florida Joker ain’t having that. Y’all took my likeness, Y’all took my life.
Red Dead Redemption 2 actor Roger Clark, who portrayed the famous Arthur Morgan, has now bashed Sullivan for demanding money for his parody in the trailer. He posted a TikTok and said that developers at Rockstar have been doing this for years and are very well aware of what they can get away with and what they can’t.
Clark added that people have been trying to sue them for years, but nothing has come out of it. He asked Sullivan if this popularity should be gifted to him to his advantage rather than asking for money. He stated:
You don’t need to talk to them. They’re not going to talk to you. They’ve had people like you trying to sue them for decades. They are lawyered up man. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with.
If I were you I would use the notoriety that they just threw your way to my advantage. Capitalize on it somehow. You ain’t getting a job at Home Depot with that face.
Rockstar Games has been parodying real people in their games for decades now, and it must have surely thought this through when putting such a notorious person in the first trailer for its biggest title yet. The character seen in the trailer is also not exactly like Sullivan, as Rockstar has changed the hair as well as the tattoos, so it is unlikely that anything comes out of this for him.
The developer has also been sued by several people in the past, including Mean Girls famed Lindsay Lohan, who said that the studio used her likeness in GTA 5 without her consent, but to no avail, as the case was eventually dismissed in 2018. Pinkerton, the real-life private security guard and detective agency, also filed a lawsuit against the developers for its portrayal in RDR2.
So it is indeed true what Clark said and that Rockstar Games is “lawyered up” and thinks things through before it does something like this, which might land it in trouble. It remains to be seen whether Sullivan will get anything from Rockstar over this, but it is highly unlikely given the history of such things.
There are several other real-time moment-inspired scenes in the trailer, but no other person has come forward to demand anything other than Lawrence Sullivan. These include the girl on the car hood, the naked man running from the police officer, and even the alligator entering a store, and all these are real-life moments from Florida that had fans in splits.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
