In just under a month, Joker: Folie à Deux will introduce moviegoers to Lady Gaga's portrayal of Harley Quinn, alongside Arthur Fleck/Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix. While Gaga is a seasoned musician and singer, this is only her third major film in a leading role. But Gaga got an unexpected education in collaborative filmmaking from Phoenix when they rewrote lines of the script during filming.
“We would meet up in Joaquin’s trailer a lot and sometimes we would tear up the script and start over,” Gaga told Vogue. “It was a really cool and liberating process.” Writer-director Todd Phillips confirmed Gaga’s account and gave an example of how their process worked.
“I often say that Joaquin is the tunnel at the end of the light,” Phillips said. “We’re like, ‘OK, this scene works, let’s shoot it.’ And Joaquin’s like, ‘No, no, no, let’s have a little meeting about it,’ and three hours later we’re rewriting the script on a tissue. The great thing about Lady Gaga is that she really holds her own, both off camera when we’re in the trailer taking things apart (which she probably spent the night before learning), but also on camera. It was no small feat.”
In the film, Gaga's version of Harley is named Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, and she's not Arthur's therapist. In fact, she's also a patient at Arkham State Hospital who finds herself drawn to the Joker. During the interview, Gaga shared her perspective on Harley's descent into love and madness.
“Harley Quinn is a character that people know from the ether of pop culture,” Gaga said. “I had a different experience creating her, which was my experience of inner mania and chaos — for me, that creates a calm. Sometimes women are labeled as overly emotional creatures and when we’re overwhelmed, we’re erratic or unbalanced. But I wonder if when things get so far removed from reality, when we’re pushed too far in life, what makes you… calm? … I would say I worked from a sensory and memory perspective: What does it feel like to walk into the world and be… prepared, intensely. And what happens when you hide all the complexities beneath the surface?”
Joker: Folie à Deux will be released in theaters on October 4.