Lady Gaga talked about playing Harley Quinn in the upcoming Joker sequel in a new interview, a portrayal of the comic book character that the film’s director likened to members of the Manson family.
Speaking to Empire in an interview published after the latest Joker: Folie À Deux trailer was released, Gaga talked about playing Lee — who becomes the Joker’s partner-in-crime as Harley Quinn — and how she had to adapt her own singing style to reflect the character in the film, which will reportedly be largely musical.
“People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is,” Gaga told Empire. “I’m playing a character. So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee, and to not come from me as a performer…How do you take music and have it just be an extension of the dialogue, as opposed to breaking into song for no conceivable reason?”
Gaga continued, “For me, there’s plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee. I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. When I breathe to sing on stage, I have this very controlled way to make sure that I’m on pitch and it’s sustained at the right rhythm and amount of time, but Lee would never know how to do any of that. So it’s like removing the technicality of the whole thing, removing my perceived art form from it all and completely being inside of who she is.”
Different iterations of Harley Quinn have appeared on comic book pages, animated series, and the big screen (most notably Margot Robbie’s portrayal), but Gaga’s version is unique from its predecessors. According to director Todd Phillips, the actress-singer found inspiration in Charles Manson’s devoted followers.
“While there are some things that people would find familiar in her, it’s really Gaga’s own interpretation, and Scott [Silver, co-writer] and I’s interpretation,” Phillips said. “She became the way how [Charles] Manson had girls that idolized him. The way that sometimes these [imprisoned murderers] have people that look up to them. There are things about Harley in the movie that were taken from the comic books, but we took it and molded it to the way we wanted it to be.”
Joker: Folie À Deux will premiere at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release on October 4.
Michaela Coel in ‘The Christophers.’Claudette Barius/NEON
