Going Gaga in Joker 2
LADY Gaga fans are going mad for her new Gothic look – revealed in her debut as the deranged queen of chaos Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel.
The first 2019 blockbuster won Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for best actor and earned more than £850million in ticket sales from a £50million budget. Now director Todd Phillips has returned with Joker: Folie à Deux, and Phoenix is again the king of mayhem while Gaga appears as his lover and sidekick. These early peeks at the psychological thriller show her character’s startling transformation from a psychologist at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum who falls for the crazed super-villain. Gaga, 38, dons clown make-up as she walks up the steps of City Hall past a throng of reporters. Phillips tried to scotch rumours that the film, due out in October, is a musical but admitted music is an “essential element”. In another scene Phoenix, 49, takes to a nightclub stage to perform in signature Joker make-up. The US actor also sings the Burt Bacharach and Hal David hit What The World Needs Now Is Love as the Joker’s toxic romantic relationship with Quinn is explored.The first film covered how failed comedian Arthur Fleck slowly transformed into the crazed Joker, taking a sympathetic view of a troubled man who is also an abused victim of a cruel society.
The sequel title is French for when two intimately related people share elements of the same mental illness, such as delusions. In its trailer,Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan, inset, asks the Joker: “What’s changed,Arthur?” Quinn and the Joker dance outside what looks like a courthouse as he replies: “I’ll tell you what’s changed – I’m not alone any more.” A 27-second teaser was previously released online in conjunction with the presentation of the sequel at trade show CinemaCon in LasVegas.