Lady Gaga has dabbled in pop, rock, country, and even American standards. But her singing in Joker: Folie à Deux was entirely new for her.
“People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is; 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,” she recently told Empire. “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? It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”
Gaga is a trainer singer, but her character, Harley “Lee” Quinn,” isn’t, so she had to learn how to hit the “bum” notes. “My breathing was different when I sang as Lee,” she explained. “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.”
Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t a straight-up musical. Rather, “it’s a film where music is an essential element,” director Todd Phillips previously told Entertainment Weekly,” including a rumored 15 reinterpretations of well-known songs. Maybe Gaga can show off the Harley Quinn singing voice during the Olympics.
Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on October 4.