“Joker 2” stars Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix discuss a sick love story

LOS ANGELES – Lady Gaga remembers finding mountains of inspiration for a twisted Joker love story while driving through Big Sky Country with boyfriend Michael Polansky in late 2022.

Polansky, an entrepreneur from San Francisco, is of course not the joker here. Gaga, 38, doesn't even try to hide the large diamond engagement ring from her now-fiancé during an interview. But the road trip through Wyoming and the Teton Range was extremely revealing for her role as Harley Quinn, the infamous love interest of Joaquin Phoenix's DC arch-villain, in the highly anticipated 2019 sequel to Joker.

“So Michael, my fiancé and I drove around some of the most beautiful mountains in the world,” Gaga says. “And I thought, 'Can you believe this woman is saying to (the Joker), 'We're going to build a mountain together'? And I truly believe she believes that. It’s pure fantasy.”

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There's a dark illusion at the heart of “Joker: Folie à Deux” (in theaters Friday), a twisted love story and unconventional supervillain musical starring two of Hollywood's most electric and eccentric actors. Don't look for Batman battles or sardonic crime capers from the duo Joker (deranged loner Arthur Fleck) and Harley Quinn (psychopatient Lee Quinzel).

No “Batman.” No bank robberies. What is “Joker 2” about?

They didn't admit it at the time, but Phoenix and director/producer/co-writer Todd Phillips had long privately discussed a sequel to their R-rated film Joker. This was ensured when the first film grossed $1 billion at the global box office, received 11 Oscar nominations and two wins – including Best Actor for Phoenix, whose Arthur is arrested but hailed as the Joker at the end of the chaotic origin story . Still, the sequel was never intended to be a comic book movie cash grab or even what 49-year-old Phoenix describes as “traditional.”

“We didn't want to just continue like the first movie, he's now the Joker, so now we're going to see him out there robbing banks,” says Phoenix. “There would be none of that.”

Phillips and Phoenix started talking about a Joker-style relationship.

“And what happens when someone falls in love with the image you project? There was something mature about it,” says Phoenix. “Because even if he gets arrested in the original, Arthur is above it all. He says there are jokes happening in me that you will never understand.”

“Folie à Deux” takes place two years later, after a made-for-TV movie about the Joker’s original rampage, and Arthur is over the mass adoration of his terribly made-up Joker persona. Phoenix was inspired by imagining the real, everyday life of 70s rock band KISS.

“Have you ever thought, how about Gene Simmons from KISS?” Where 20-year-olds paint their faces, put on platform shoes, everything rock'n'roll,” says Phoenix with a laugh. “But what happens when you're in your 40s and you say, 'I don't want to wear makeup anymore'? I just started laughing about it. Todd and I thought, maybe this is the start of something.”

In “Folie à Deux,” daily life in Arkham State Hospital's violent offenders ward – with daily medication and the oppressive watch of soul-destroying guards – has extinguished Arthur's flame. While Arthur looked shockingly thin in the original Joker due to Phoenix's 52-pound weight loss, this becomes even more apparent in the second film. Arthur shuffles out of his cell, seemingly more emaciated, his shoulder bones protruding from his bare back.

“It was the first day of filming and I was very, very depressed,” says Phoenix. “I was definitely thinner than the first time.”

“It’s not CG, it’s just his body,” Phillips says over his shoulders. “We talked about the fact that he won’t lose weight again. Because honestly, I didn't want him to feel bad. But he just thought, 'No, Arthur has to look a certain way.' It was really important to him. If Arthur was a bastard before, he's a real bastard now.

After the success of “Joker,” Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga filmed under a “microscope”

Arthur's desperate perspective immediately changes when he meets Lee in “Folie à Deux” (a French term describing a psychiatric syndrome in which two people have the same delusional disorder). The pop icon and actress (“A Star Is Born”) was the clear choice when Phillips and Phoenix decided that the film should be a fantasy musical, an idea that has its roots in Arthur's famous stair and bathroom dances in ” “Joker” had.

Phillips says the drawbacks of directing two cultural giants like Phoenix and Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) were the swarming paparazzi and fan expectations.

“It wasn’t easy, but not because of her personality,” Phillips says. “When we made the first Joker, no one knew what the hell we were doing. It was all under the radar. Suddenly, especially after inviting Lady Gaga, you’re under the microscope.”

Gaga landed with a Teton-inspired cover of “Gonna Build a Mountain,” which appears on her new “Harlequin” album and also inspired an elaborate dream waltz for the budding screen couple that leads to a nightmare dance.

“It was exciting because I brought the idea for the scene to Todd and Joaquin,” Gaga says. “It starts in the spirit of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I thought the wildest thing these two could imagine about themselves would be to be a picture of health and happiness. But then it collapses. The waltz is broken, and so is she.” “

The sequel culminates in a sensational, televised Joker trial of the century, and sees Arthur return to his witty, brightly made-up self, fueled by the also-transformed Harley Quinn. But that's the pinnacle of a comic. Singing standards to the camera and dancing show the commitment to the unusual musical.

Clearly, Gaga lives in this world and even had to slow down her voice to make Lee's amateur singing realistic. “Walk the Line” star Phoenix, who took tap dancing lessons at age 8, also has singing and dancing experience. But each big number required so many weeks of training that Phillips feels the need to point out to Phoenix: “There's no CGI, there's no facial replacement, there's no replacement for this guy.”

A full-fledged Joker tap-dancing interlude required two hours of training a day with choreographer Michael Arnold for “months,” says Phoenix, “and then it's about 27 seconds into the film. But of course it’s very complex.”

During the workout, Arnold introduced Phoenix to the master tap move “toe stand,” where he balances on his toes.

“I did it and then I just stopped,” Phoenix says. “I didn’t want to break my ankle.”

But when he was alone and without pressure, Phoenix found that he could make the move. While filming the scene of Gaga kicking around the piano, he felt the sensation of tapping his toes.

“I think it was just like the energy of seeing Stefani, like the veins in her neck were expanding as she screamed,” Phoenix says. “I thought, 'Well, I have to try for the movie even if I fall.' So I threw them in. And I couldn't believe I made them. Stefani and I were just caught up in the mood.

No “Batman.” No bank robberies. What is “Joker 2” about?

After the success of “Joker,” Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga filmed under a “microscope”

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