The director of photography for Joker: Folie à Deux reveals why Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn is the right match for Joaquin Phoenix’s eponymous character. Despite courting problems ahead of its release, Todd Phillips’ Joker became one of the year’s top blockbusters. Joker, starring Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, aka the title Clown Prince of Crime, was a psychological character study of the legendary villain’s fall into lunacy.
Despite working successfully as a standalone film, Joker has generated an anticipated sequel, Folie à Deux. Phillips will continue exploring new ideas and twists on the character in the next picture, which has been announced as a musical and it will star Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. The promotional video for Joker 2 revealed that the film will focus on Arthur and Harley’s romance, maybe revealing a new aspect to the infamous DC couple. While many were startled by the decision to cast the famous musician and actor in the film, one crew member believes Gaga’s public presence, acting talent, and musical talents makes her a solid option for the role.
Lawrence Sher, the director of photography for Folie à Deux, discussed why Gaga will shine in the part of Harley when in an interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s Behind the Screen podcast. Gaga will “bring a same kind of magic that Joaquin delivered,” according to Sher, hinting at another standout performance in the movie. See Sher’s complete quote below:
“She’s going to be a really cool fit for this movie and will create a similar kind of magic that Joaquin brought by himself. The combination of the two will be exactly what we hope, which is exciting, and we’ll find magic every day on set. Hopefully we’ll also have a bit of madness in there. We like when there is a little bit of chaos.”
What Can We Expect From Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn?
According to Sher, Gaga’s Harley will have some of the turmoil that the character is known for, even while matching Phoenix’s electric intensity on-screen. The Joker actor was praised for his passion to his part and even won an Oscar for it, setting a high standard for his co-star in Folie à Deux. Fortunately, Gaga is a tremendous on-screen presence on her own right, so the pair’s scenes together are likely to be equal parts intense and exhilarating. In previous renditions, the couple’s conventional dynamic was abusive and destructive, but Phoenix’s Joker is less innately wicked than previous portrayals, with his mental illness and lifelong troubles serving as the cause for his crimes. Because of Phoenix’s unique perspective on the comic book villain, his Joker’s romance with Harley will most likely take a different turn, maybe involving softer, albeit still twisted, love.
Based on the news that Joker: Folie à Deux will be a musical and Arthur’s hallucinations of the original film, it’s possible that the entire film will function as a fantasy sequence, simply means that Gaga’s Harley would either match Arthur’s illusion of reality, be evoked by it, or exist differently outside of it, similar to Zazie Beetz’s character in the first film. In contrast to Margot Robbie’s Harley, Gaga in Joker: Folie à Deux will most likely be darker to match the tone of the Phillips flicks, as well as more unstable, according to the title, which translates to “folly of two” or “shared lunacy.” Though the reaction to Gaga’s performance as Harley is yet to be determined, Joker: Folie à Deux is building up to be a very unique cinematic experience.
Source: THR