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‘Joker 2’ stars Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix discuss sick love story

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2 weeks ago

October 5, 2024

'Joker 2' stars Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix discuss sick love story

LOS ANGELES − Woman Gaga recollects discovering mountains of inspiration for a twisted Joker love story whereas driving by Large Sky Nation in late 2022 together with her boyfriend, Michael Polansky.

Polansky, a San Francisco entrepreneur, just isn’t the Joker right here, in fact. Gaga, 38, would not even attempt to cover the sizable diamond engagement ring from her now-fiancé throughout an interview. However the Wyoming and Teton Vary street journey was awesomely illuminating for her position as Harley Quinn, the notorious love curiosity to Joaquin Phoenix’s DC archvillain within the wildly anticipated sequel to 2019’s “Joker.”

“So Michael, my fiance, and I have been driving round a few of the most stunning mountains on this planet,” Gaga says. “And I used to be pondering, ‘Are you able to consider that this girl says to (the Joker) that ‘We’re gonna construct a mountain collectively’? And I fully consider she believes that. It is a full fantasy.”

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Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga dance before director Todd Phillips (far right) in

It is a darkish phantasm on the core of “Joker: Folie à Deux” (in theaters Friday), a warped love story and unconventional supervillain musical starring two of probably the most electrifying and eccentric actors in Hollywood. Do not go in search of Batman battles or gleeful crime capers from the duo of Joker (mentally disturbed loner Arthur Fleck) and Harley Quinn (fellow psychological affected person Lee Quinzel).

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No ‘Batman.’ No financial institution robberies. So what’s ‘Joker 2’ about?

They did not fess as much as it on the time, however Phoenix and director/producer/co-writer Todd Phillips had lengthy privately mentioned a sequel to their R-rated “Joker.” This was ensured when the primary movie went on to earn $1 billion on the worldwide field workplace, 11 Oscar nominations and two wins − together with for finest actor for Phoenix, whose Arthur is arrested however celebrated because the Joker on the finish of the chaotic origin story. But, the follow-up was by no means going to be a comic-book film cash seize and even what Phoenix, 49, calls “conventional.”

“We did not wish to simply keep it up from the primary movie like, he is the Joker now, so now we’ll see him on the market robbing banks,” Phoenix says. “There wasn’t going to be any of that.”

Phillips and Phoenix began speaking a few relationship Joker-style.

“And what occurs when any individual falls in love with the picture that you simply mission? There was one thing ripe about that,” Phoenix says. “As a result of even as soon as he is arrested within the unique, Arthur is above every part. He is like, there are jokes taking place inside me that you simply’re by no means, ever going to get.”

“Folie à Deux” is ready two years later, after a TV film in regards to the Joker’s unique killing spree, and Arthur is over the mass adoration of his hideously made-up Joker persona. Phoenix obtained his inspiration by imagining the actual each day lifetime of the ’70s rock band KISS.

“Did you ever suppose, how about Gene Simmons from KISS? The place 20-year-olds are portray their faces, placing on platform footwear, all rock ‘n’ roll,” Phoenix says, laughing. “However what occurs whenever you’re in your 40s and like, ‘I do not wish to put the make-up on anymore’? I simply began laughing about that. Todd and I have been like, possibly that is the start of one thing.”

In “Folie à Deux,” the each day toll of life within the violent offenders wing of Arkham State Hospital − with each day drugs and the oppressive watch of soul-crushing guards − has extinguished Arthur’s flame. If Arthur regarded alarmingly skinny within the unique “Joker” on account of Phoenix’s 52-pound weight reduction, it is much more obvious within the second film. Arthur shuffles out of his cell, seemingly extra emaciated, all jutting shoulder bones on his uncovered again.

“That was the primary day of taking pictures, and I used to be very, very low,” Phoenix says. “I undoubtedly was thinner than I used to be on the primary one.”

“That is not CG, that is simply his physique,” Phillips says of the shoulders. “We talked about him not dropping the burden once more. As a result of I did not need him to be unhealthy, fairly frankly. However he simply thought, ‘No, Arthur has to look a sure method.’ It was actually necessary to him. If Arthur was a bummer earlier than, now he is an actual bummer.”

After the success of ‘Joker,’ Joaquin Phoenix and Woman Gaga discovered themselves taking pictures beneath a ‘microscope’

Arthur’s despondent perspective modifications instantly upon assembly Lee in “Folie à Deux” (a French time period that describes a psychiatric syndrome by which two individuals share the identical delusional dysfunction). The pop icon and actress (“A Star Is Born”) had emerged because the clear alternative as soon as Phillips and Phoenix determined the movie can be a fantasy musical, an thought which had roots in Arthur’s famed stair and toilet dances in “Joker.”

Phillips says the downsides of directing two cultural luminaries like Phoenix and Gaga (actual title Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) have been the swarming paparazzi and fan expectations.

“It was not straightforward, however not due to their personalities,” Phillips says. “Once we made the primary ‘Joker,’ no person knew what the hell we have been making. It was all beneath the radar. Abruptly, particularly after you invite Woman Gaga in, you are beneath a microscope.”

Gaga hit the bottom belting a Teton-prompted cowl of “Gonna Construct a Mountain,” which seems on her new “Harlequin” album and likewise impressed an elaborate dream waltz for the budding display screen couple that devolves right into a nightmare dance.

“It was thrilling as a result of I introduced the scene thought to Todd and Joaquin,” Gaga says. “It begins within the spirit of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I believed probably the most wild factor that these two may think about about themselves is being the image of well being and happiness. However then it falls aside. The waltz is damaged, so are they.”

The sequel rolls right into a sensational, televised Joker trial of the century and Arthur reverts to his wisecracking, garishly face-painted self, urged on by the equally remodeled Harley Quinn. However that is the height comic-book fare. The singing of requirements to the digital camera and the dancing present the dedication degree to the weird musical.

Clearly, Gaga lives on this world and even needed to put the brakes on her voice to make Lee’s newbie singing practical. “Stroll the Line” star Phoenix, who took faucet classes at age 8, additionally has song-and-dance expertise. However every large-scale quantity required sufficient weeks of coaching that Phillips feels the necessity to level out about Phoenix: “There is no CGI, there isn’t any face substitute, there isn’t any stand-in for this dude.”

A full-on Joker faucet dance interlude required two hours of coaching every day “for months” with choreographer Michael Arnold, Phoenix says, “after which it is within the film for like 27 seconds. However, clearly, it’s totally advanced.”

In the course of the coaching, Arnold launched Phoenix to the knowledgeable faucet “toe stand” transfer, balancing on the toe suggestions.

“I went to do it, and I simply stopped,” Phoenix says. ” I did not wish to break my ankle.”

But, when he was alone, with out strain, Phoenix discovered he may pull off the transfer. Taking pictures the scene with a belting Gaga on the piano, he felt impressed to let the toe stands rip.

“I believe it was similar to the power of seeing Stefani, just like the veins have been bulging in her neck as she was screaming,” Phoenix says. “I used to be like, ‘Nicely, I’ve obtained to strive it on movie, even when I fall.’ So I threw them in. And I could not consider I did them. Me and Stefani simply obtained caught up within the spirit.”