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Lady Gaga says playing Joker 2 had a “profound impact” on her and her fiancé


Lady Gaga says playing Joker 2 had a “profound impact” on her and her fiancé

Lady Gaga usually leaves it all on stage – but she says she took her latest work home with her.

The “Joker: Folie à Deux” star shared on Tuesday that her role as Lee “Harlequin” Quinzel has spilled into her personal life, as Gaga not only portrayed the titular Batman villain's troubled lover on set, but also at home Michael Polansky wrote the entire film soundtrack with her fiancé.

Polansky appears on four of the 13 tracks on the album “Harlequin,” which hit stores Friday.

“I wasn't finished with this character when I finished shooting the movie,” Gaga said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Tuesday. “Their creation had a profound effect on me. Because of the way I prepare for things, Michael also got to know Lee pretty well.”

“We wanted to do something to celebrate the complexity of a woman who carries danger within her while also carrying a sense of sweetness that cannot be defined,” she added. “Just as you can’t define Lee in the film, you can’t define her by genre in this album.”

The alleged collection of covers of classic songs (including “Good Morning” and “Oh, When the Saints”), as well as two original tracks, presumably add to the characters' delusions, as both Quinzel and Joker are seen in the trailer midway through imaginary songs erupt chaos they sow.

Gaga said Tuesday that she and Polansky, whose engagement at the 2024 Paris Olympics was reportedly scuttled by French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, “planned this project together.” Gaga noted that her fiancé is “closer to me artistically than most people” she knows.

“I think it's a beautiful thing when you can share an artistic experience with your partner, which might be difficult for some people, but Michael understands me so well that it actually led to this record,” she told the outlet praised “his understanding of Lee in our daily lives.”

Gaga and Polansky at the British premiere of "Joker: Folie à Deux" last week in London.
Gaga and Polansky at the British premiere of “Joker: Folie à Deux” in London last week.

Scott A. Garfitt/Invision/Associated Press

While fans might think they know what to expect from a cheeky selection of cover songs in a confident “Joker” sequel, Gaga hinted that her fiancé helped “push the sound forward” to acoustically convey Quinzel's story tell – and that it is a “lively but also tense, dangerous but also pure” experience.

Her leading man Joaquin Phoenix likely had a different experience making the film, as he lost 52 pounds to portray his emaciated version of Gotham City's so-called “Clown Prince of Crime” in the 2020 film – and he looks similar in the footage the sequel.

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“Joker: Folie à Deux” hits theaters on Friday.

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