Subhi Agrawal
If the trailers and the casting of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn didn’t make it obvious, song and dance are central to writer-director Todd Phillips’ new sequel Joker: Folie à Deux. Both Phoenix and Gaga deliver vocals in intricately choreographed and designed numbers throughout the film.
Joker: Folie à Deux Explores Arthur’s Psyche Through Music
While the DC Comics-inspired Joker presented a gritty origin story for a well-known Batman villain, Folie à Deux was born from the realization by Phoenix, Phillips, and co-writer Scott Silver that Arthur’s inner psyche could be conveyed through music. “We just found ourselves writing more and more music into it,” Phillips told PEOPLE. “And I, at some point just thought, ‘I want to find an actor who brings music with them.’”
In addition to portraying a version of Harley Quinn in the sequel, Gaga, 38, recently released a companion album titled Harlequin, featuring her recordings of songs from the film. The tracks primarily draw from the golden age of movie musicals, including “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from Sweet Charity and classic jazz standards like “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “Get Happy.” The song “That’s Life,” made famous by Frank Sinatra and featured in 2019’s Joker, reappears in Folie à Deux, with a fresh rendition by Gaga.
“The question became, ‘how can we top ourselves?’” Phillips spoke to Variety in August about developing the sequel following the initial Joker’s success. “And you can only do that if you do something dangerous.”
“Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue… It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead,” he continued.
Phoenix Encouraged Gaga to Embrace Raw Singing
Phoenix, 49, echoed this sentiment in a cover story interview with Vogue published on September 5, stating, “I encouraged [Gaga] to sing poorly,” he recalled. “I remember asking her to sing without her vibrato… as soon as she moved away from technique she unlocked her character’s voice.”
“I worked really hard on that, trying to undo all my technique,” Gaga told Vogue. In contrast, she noted, “Ally Maine in A Star Is Born is a singer, and it’s a movie about people who make music. That is not what this film is about at all.”
During a press conference for the world premiere of Folie à Deux at the Venice Film Festival on September 4, Phoenix revealed that Gaga told him early in the filming that they would sing their vocals live instead of pre-recording in a studio. “And I was like, ‘No, we’re not — you can sing live if you’d like.’ But ultimately we did it, and it was really the only way.”
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