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Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga made an appearance at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday for “Joker: Folie à deux.”
The stars spoke about the film and transforming into The Joker and Harley Quinn in the musical sequel.
Reflecting on playing Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, for the second time, Phoenix spoke about how cutting weight was different this time around.
“I won’t go into the details of my dietary restrictions, but this time I had a lot of dance rehearsals, which I didn’t have last time, so it felt a little complicated.”
While Phoenix said he did it in a “safe” way, he added, “I’m 49 now. I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably my last time.”
He said Gaga “lost a lot of weight” for the film, and that she “took time to transform into the character, [on] Every single detail.”
Speaking of rehearsing the dance, she added: “But preparing for the waltz that’s in the film was really special. We rehearsed for months. It’s funny. It’s a collapsing waltz, and it captures this very strange love between the two of them.” [Phoenix] He did a great job on set, feeding him blueberries when he was hungry.”
Joaquin claimed he didn’t want to talk too much about his weight loss this time around.
“I know it’s my own fault that I talked about it so much last time because losing weight is hard. You’re working your way up to a certain weight and it becomes an obsession,” he explained, adding, “So I can’t help but talk about it and I end up sounding like an actor going on and on about how much weight he’s lost.”
“By the time that series finished, I was disgusted with myself and angry with myself for doing that, because you just do what you have to do… so this time, I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that,'” the Oscar-winner said.
As for the singing, Joaquin said, “At first she was like, ‘Oh, sing it live,’ and I was like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that… You can sing it live if you want,’ and in the end we did it and it was really the only way. Not only did we sing it live, but every part on the recording was live… We were working with a pianist.”
Gaga added, “I think the approach to music in this film was very special and very subtle. In a lot of ways, I wouldn’t even say it’s a musical. Not at all. The way music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they want to say, because scenes and lines just wouldn’t be enough.”
Speaking about the singing, Starr said: “We worked really hard on the singing. For me it was about forgetting about technique, forgetting about how to breathe and letting the song come completely from the character.”
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Gaga also opened up about her love of music and film, saying, “I think I started making music because from a really young age I had something I wanted to say and I was figuring out how to express it. One of the reasons I love music and film so much is the stories I can tell and the way I can express something to the world, and hopefully that helps people feel more satisfied with their life, gives them a moment to escape to another world and immerse themselves in someone else’s story.”
In the film, Phoenix will reprise his role as Arthur Fleck, who is now an inmate at Arkham Asylum after murdering Murray Franklin on live television.
While awaiting trial and struggling with his identity, he meets and falls in love with Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, played by Gaga.
Joker director Todd Phillips will produce the sequel, which will also star Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, Harry Lawty and Zazie Beetz.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” will be released on October 4th.
