Joaquin Phoenix was “sick every day” because he was so nervous about singing with Lady Gaga on the set of Joker: Folie à Deux, the film’s director has said.
The film is the follow-up to 2019’s Joker, and is out in cinemas on October 4. It received its premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival this week (September 4), with some of the early reactions hailing it as the “movie of the year”.
According to director Todd Phillips, Phoenix had to perform with Gaga as early as nine days into shooting, but despite his nerves, they both helped each other out.
“The truth is, they gave each other pointers. He’d give her pointers about acting; she’s been in movies, but he’s Joaquin Phoenix,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “She gave him tips about music because she’s Lady Gaga. It’s what movies should be: a giant collaboration.”
Phoenix and Gaga cover numerous songs throughout the film, including Sammy Davis Jr.’s ‘Gonna Build a Mountain’ and Judy Garland’s ‘Get Happy,’ which mostly take place in protagonist Arthur Fleck’s mind.
Phillips addressed elsewhere in the interview whether Joker: Folie A Deux could be considered a musical.
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“I got a little heat for saying it’s not really a musical. I wasn’t saying that because I’m afraid of the term, ‘musical.’ I love musicals, and the movie definitely has music in it. It might even be a musical,” Phillips said. “To clarify, most of the times I’ve ever seen a musical, I walk out feeling better than I did when I walked in. On this movie, I’m not sure it’s the same thing. I wouldn’t want to be misleading and say you’re going to be whistling the songs from this movie on the way to your car after you see it.”
Later this week, Gaga is set to release a companion album to the film titled ‘Harlequin’. Covers of a number of jazz standards including ‘Oh, When The Saints’, ‘Get Happy‘ and ‘That’s Life‘, along with a few original tracks that appear in the film, are all set to feature on ‘Harlequin’.
In an interview with Vogue earlier this month, Gaga said that she drew on her own experiences when playing the character: “Harley Quinn is a character people know from the ether of pop culture. I had a different experience creating her, namely my experience with mania and chaos inside – for me, it creates a quietness. Sometimes women are labelled as these overly emotional creatures and when we are overwhelmed we are erratic or unhinged. But I wonder if when things become so broken from reality, when we get pushed too far in life, what if it makes you…quiet?”
NME gave Joker: Folie à Deux a four-star review, saying that Gaga “shines in a provocative prison musical” and: “[director Todd] Phillips and [co-writer Scott] Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.“
Last month, however, Phillips suggested that Folie à Deux is likely to be the final film in the Joker franchise: “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.”