Lady Gaga Unveils Exciting Details About Joker 2’s Bold Twist

Lady Gaga has lauded director Todd Phillips for the daring and complexity brought to the upcoming “Joker” sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux.

Gaga, 38, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, will be playing Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, a rendition of the iconic villain Harley Quinn. She will be starring opposite Joaquin Phoenix, 49, who is reprising his role as Arthur Fleck, also known as the Joker.

In a conversation with Variety, Gaga expressed, “Todd took a very big swing with this whole concept and with the script, giving the sequel to ‘Joker’ this audacity and complexity.”

She went on to describe the film’s diversity. “There’s music, there’s dance, it’s a drama, it’s also a courtroom drama, it’s a comedy, it’s happy, it’s sad. It’s a testament to [Todd] as a director, that he would rather be creative than just tell a traditional story of love.”

Phillips, 53, provided more insight into the musical elements of the film. He revealed that Phoenix and Gaga will perform song-and-dance numbers including classic tunes like “Get Happy,” “For Once in My Life,” and “That’s Life,” though he hesitated to categorize the film strictly as a musical.

“Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue,” explained Phillips. “It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead.”

Clarifying further, he added, “I just don’t want people to think that it’s like ‘In the Heights,’ where the lady in the bodega starts to sing and they take it out onto the street, and the police are dancing. No disrespect, because I loved ‘In the Heights.’

Adding her perspective, Gaga noted that audiences shouldn’t expect the musical performances to be as polished as they are in her pop career. “We asked ourselves what would need to be true for two people to just break into song in the middle of a conversation?” she said. “Where does the music come from when no one can hear it but the characters? Neither Arthur nor Lee are professional singers, and they shouldn’t sound like they are.”

The original 2019 film “Joker” depicted the mental decline of Arthur Fleck, an aspiring comedian and clown. His transformation into the violent Joker persona follows social and romantic rejection, leading him to become a cult anti-hero.

Phoenix’s performance earned him an Oscar, and the film grossed more than $1 billion at the box office, becoming the most profitable R-rated movie of all time at the time. That record has since been surpassed by this year’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

The sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” is slated for release in cinemas on October 4, 2024, marking the fifth anniversary of the original film’s release.

Source: Variety