Lady Gaga transforms as Lee Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, in the new film, Joker: Folie à Deux. She recently spoke about what it took to make the character, and the music within the film, work.
Gaga co-stars in the film with Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/The Joker, as it finds Fleck at Arkham while he is awaiting trial after the events of the first film.
Arthur meets Lee and not only do they happen upon love, but they channel music as well.
What Lady Gaga says about the music in Joker: Folie à Deux
The music and songs within this film aren’t like what would be in your typical musical. The songs themselves help drive plot, so any performance can be likened to lines of dialogue and filling out the characters.
“It was a process that was completely rare and original to this film, and I really loved working on it,” Gaga said in a recent interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “We spent a lot of time talking about the voice, and for my character, I wanted to find a voice for her that would be uniquely hers. But also because fantasies play such a big role in the film, I also tried to use my voice like a paintbrush and in a way that would not be beholden to me as the singer and entertainer that my fans know me as, but as the woman in Arthur’s mind.”
The actress and singer also knew that this meant she had to distinguish her transformation into the character from everything else she and everyone else knows her for.
“So in what moments in the film is it reality? In what moments in the film is it fantasy? In what moments would she be singing from a broken place with very little breath and no attention to her singing voice at all,” she said. “And in other moments, how would she just completely shine and be magic and why? It was like a nuanced process, and it’s always fun to do something with music that I’ve never done before.”
Harley Quinn in reality and Harley Quinn from the Arthur Fleck’s perception
This process also included Gaga having to distinguish the version of her character in the reality of the film vs. the version of the character that was in Arthur’s own reality.
“It just became a process of me always trying new things and no matter what the scene was and what we were doing, I was always just trying to get to the truth,” she explained. “But never in the same way. I really didn’t have preconceived notions as to how each scene would go or what would happen, but rather just finding it with Joaquin. And that was really intense and beautiful process. I think what I found the most in her was her chaos inside of her and how that can be meaningful too. Of course, chaos can have its outward moments, and it does in the movie. She does what she needs to do to get what she wants. But also I think we can all relate to, especially as a woman, that feeling of just feeling like you’re going to explode inside and that you might become very quiet and what that would mean that you have something to say, but maybe you don’t know how to communicate. It’s like all over your face and it’s a storm brewing inside of you, but it’s not as obvious. I think that that’s really true and real, and that was something I wanted to do was create a complex woman.”
Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on Oct. 7
The post Lady Gaga Says ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Included An ‘Intense And Beautiful Process’ To ‘Create A Complex Woman’ appeared first on Blavity.
