Stefani Germanotta went double method acting for Joker: Folie à Deux. The singer and actress, who you know better as Lady Gaga, made everyone call her “Lee” while filming the Joker sequel.
“I didn’t know Stefani at all. Strangely, I felt like I never even met her, even during the makeup/hair tests. Maybe it was my philosophy of not trying to get in their space,” Oscar-winning cinematographer Lawrence Sher told The Trenches Talk podcast, according to Variety. “I remember for a week being like, ‘God, I feel like we are disconnecting. Not even connecting. We are like on opposites.’ And I would say to my crew, ‘Jesus, I can’t crack it. She either hates me or we hate each other. There’s something weird going on here.’”
Sher barely said anything to “Lee,” other than minor things like, “Stefani, this is where your second team was.” Then, at one point, the assistant director told him, “Oh you know, Stef would like if you just called her Lee on set.” That’s when it clicked. “And I was like, 100 percent. The next thing I said was something ‘Lee,’ and it was like everything changed. From that point on, it was like she was… our whole connection changed. I was like, alright, cool,” he said.
“Lee” is presumably a reference to “Harley,” as in Harley Quinn. But if Lady Gaga doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for her performance in the movie, it’s because she didn’t make everyone call her Lady Haha.
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(Via Variety)