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Something ‘completely liberating’ about playing Harley Quinn

Something ‘completely liberating’ about playing Harley Quinn

Vaseline 1 month ago

What’s the hardest way to follow up on a terminally bleak, multibillion-dollar, Oscar-winning blockbuster (adjacent) superhero movie without superheroes? Of course, add some live song and dance numbers. That’s what Joaquin Phoenix from the team behind the expected says Joker: Folie à Deux decided to do, a choice that terrified the notoriously fearless actor from day one.

“How can we make the music in the most honest way possible?” he asked in a joint interview with co-star Lady Gaga and director Todd Phillips that aired Good morning America on Friday (September 27) about the bold decision to have untrained singer Phoenix and Grammy winner Gaga sing together live on stage during the film’s fantasy scenes. “When we first started, I didn’t want anything to be spontaneous and I wanted to sound as good as possible,” said Phoenix, who has previously been described as ‘sick’ with nerves from singing with Gaga.

Phoenix noted that it was Gaga’s idea to do it live, which he said sounded great for her since she does that for a living. “You were really cool and made me feel a little bit comfortable with that,” he said, while Gaga added: “I can assure you that Joaquin using his natural voice was so much more convincing than any lip sync ever would be.”

While Phoenix said he just didn’t want his Joker ride to end after his Oscar-winning first turn as washed-up clown Arthur Fleck in the intense 2019 film jokerGaga said the original film really interested her in joining the crazy world of Phoenix and director Phillips. “I loved Arthur so much, who would be the love of his life?” the singer said she wondered.

Plus, she added, there was something “so completely liberating” about playing Quinn, including being able to put some pieces of herself into the character that she’s always felt a little ashamed or private about. “When I first saw the movie I thought, ‘Oh, that’s in there! That part of me that I don’t want anyone to know,” Gaga said of her third leading role in a major motion picture after her breakthrough film in 2018. A star is born and a strong performance in the all-star ensemble in 2021 House of Gucci.

Although she always seems poised and powerful, Gaga said the moments when she sees herself in Quinn are the moments when her character “seems so uncomfortable… she feels on the edge.” There have certainly been times in my life when I have felt this way.”

Even more challenging: Gaga recorded a whole joker-theme album, Harlequinout today, channels her character Harley Quinn on a series of classic covers and a few originals. “Lee is not an artist and I am, and in a scene it’s just completely different as a different character,” Gaga said of tapping into what separates the Joker’s equally strange love from Gaga’s stage persona.

“It’s Lee’s reality, it’s their shared reality, it comes from that character and not from me as an artist,” she said. “Not only do I sing in this film, I also sing with a full voice.”

The 13-track album includes a number of Harley-fied covers of “Good Morning” (from Singing in the rain), ‘If my friends could see me now’ (Sweet charity), as well as a soul-funk version of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ (here titled ‘Oh, When the Saints’), ‘That’s Entertainment’, the Carpenters’ ‘Close to You’ and ‘World on a String’ and two originals, ‘Folie à Deux’ and the rocky ‘The Joker’.

The surprise companion album to the film was recorded alongside the sessions for Gaga’s as-yet-untitled seventh studio album, which will be released in February with a first single released next month. Joker: Folie à Deux will be in cinemas from October 4