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Lady Gaga has praised director Todd Phillips for the “audacity and complexity” of the upcoming Joker sequel Joker: Folie à Deux.
Gaga, 38, born Stefani Germanotta, is set to appear in the film as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, a version of supervillain Harley Quinn, opposite Joaquin Phoenix, 49, who reprises his role as Arthur Fleck and his villainous alter-ego the Joker.
Speaking to Variety, Gaga said: “Todd took a very big swing with this whole concept and with the script, giving the sequel to Joker this audacity and complexity.
“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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Phillips, 53, offered further details about the musical aspect of the film.
Phoenix and Gaga will perform song-and-dance routines while singing classic tunes like “Get Happy,” “For Once in My Life” and “That’s Life”, but the director says he wouldn’t strictly classify the film as a musical.
“Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue,” said Phillips. “It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead.”
“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,” he continued. “No disrespect, because I loved In the Heights.”
Gaga added that audiences shouldn’t expect the musical performances to be as polished as they are in her own 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.”
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The 2019 film Joker tracked the mental decline of aspiring comedian and clown Arthur Fleck. His violent Joker persona emerges as a result of his social and romantic rejection, and he goes on to become a cult anti-hero.
Phoenix won an Oscar for his performance, and the film made more than $1bn at the box office, becoming at the time the most profitable R-rated movie of all time. That record has since been broken by this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
The sequel will arrive in cinemas on October 4, 2024, the fifth anniversary of the original film’s release.
