Yes,Joker: Folie à DeuxIs a Musical: Everything Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Have Said About Its Singing

Mar. 15, 2025

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in the ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ trailer.Photo:Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube

Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube

Audiences excited forJoaquin Phoenix’s return as Arthur Fleck in the follow-up toJokershould go in knowing a very important detail:Joker: Folie à Deuxis a movie musical.

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’.Niko Tavernise

Niko Tavernise

“The question became, ‘how can we top ourselves?’” Phillips toldVarietyin August of developing the sequel after the initialJoker’s success. “And you can only do that if you do something dangerous.”

Of his musical numbers, he added, “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.”

“We asked ourselves what would need to be true for two people to just break into song in the middle of a conversation?” Gaga told the outlet. “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.”

Phoenix, 49, echoed that sentiment in a cover story interview withVoguepublished on Sept. 5. “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.”

(Left-right:) Todd Phillips, Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix at the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Venice International Film Festival premiere on Sept. 4.Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty

Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty

“I worked really hard on that, kind of trying to undo all my technique,” Gaga toldVogue. By comparison, she added, “Ally Maine inA Star Is Bornis a singer and it’s a movie about people who make music. That is not what this film is about at all.”

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At a press conference forFolie à Deux’s world premiere at theVenice Film Festivalon Sept. 4 (where its screening received an 11-minute standing ovation), Phoenix said that Gaga told him early in the filming process that they wouldsing vocals liverather than pre-record in a studio. “And I was like, ‘No, we’re not — you can sing live, if you’d like.’ And ultimately we did it, and it was really the only way.”

The Oscar winner also said the actors “were working with a pianist on set, so each take was a different version of the song and of singing the song.” That unconventional way of shooting a movie musical, Phillips admitted toVariety, was a “nightmare” for him and editor Jeff Groth.

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’.Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

But “particularly for Joaquin, so much of it is about feeling the moment as you do it,” Phillips said. “You can’t decide that in a sound studio three weeks before you show up to shoot it.”

At the Venice press conference, Gaga weighed in on the movie’s “very different” filmmaking techniques. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical,” she said. “The way that music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and just the dialogue is not enough.”

Joker: Folie à Deuxis now in theaters.

source: people.com