One of the most highly anticipated films of the year, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga starrer ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is finally around the corner and fans are super excited to see Phoenix as the iconic character again, joined by the talented Lady Gaga and a team that created magic in the first film.
As the film readies up to reach the audience, the cast and team behind the film reveal how Phoenix heavily made some creative contributions to the film — so much that Todd Philips had to go around rewriting scenes on napkins.
Joaquin Phoenix’s Creative Contributions To ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’
Joaquin Phoenix absolutely stunned audiences with his performance in the first film of the franchise as Arthur Fleck — a feat that also won him an Academy Award. As the actor continued to work in the sequel, Todd Philips revealed how he took more control over his character and the narrative, something that Lady Gaga also agreed with.
While Scott Silver and Todd Phillips co-wrote the original screenplay of the upcoming film, Phoenix pushed the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux‘ crew to rewrite scenes over and over again — even while the film was in production, the crew revealed.
Related: How Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn In ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Will Be Different From The Comics
Speaking to Vogue, Todd revealed, “My line about Joaquin is that he’s the tunnel at the end of the light. You think, OK, this scene works, let’s just go shoot it. And Joaquin’s like, ‘No, no, no, let’s just have a quick meeting about it,’ and it’s three hours later and you’re rewriting it on a napkin.”
Gaga then agreed and said, “We’d very often meet in Joaquin’s trailer and sometimes we would just tear the script up and start all over. It was a really cool, liberating process.”
Here’s How The Musical Process Behind ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Went
Talking about the musical process behind the film, Joaquin Phoenix said, “I had this dream I was performing as Joker doing songs and I just called Todd because I thought there might be something there, and there wasn’t.”
“Part of the joy for me was taking these songs that were standards and trying to find a way that it felt like they were specific to the characters, that it was the only way the characters could express themselves, with these songs sung in this way,” he continued.
Related: Todd Phillips Declares The End Of Joker Era With ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’
Todd Philips then added, “If you remember the first film, Arthur has a musicality to him. He is often dancing to express the way he feels. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is almost a character in the first film. So when [the sequel] started taking shape with actual music elements, we thought, what if we got Lady Gaga who actually brings music with her?”
‘Joker: Folie à Deux‘ comes out on October 2, 2024.
