In this article:
- Joaquin Phoenix says it’s “probably the last time” he does as much physical preparation for a role as he did for Joker 2.
- He says that, in addition to a diet to achieve the skeletal physique of the character, he now had to rehearse many musical numbers.
- Phoenix and Lady Gaga sang the Joker songs live, so he also had to prepare his voice to meet that challenge.
Joker: Folié à Deux is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films of 2024. In 2018, when Joaquin Phoenix took up the mantle of the character for the first time, his version of the character became quite a phenomenon, breaking box office records and being listed as one of the most ambitious superhero movies ever made.
In the sequel, Phoenix is accompanied by Lady Gaga, who had the mission of interpreting to a new version of Harley Quinn. And if that were not enough, from the beginning it was announced that the film will have big and ambitious musical sequences to accompany the story.
Apparently, the magnitude of the sequel was too much for Joaquin Phoenix, as it required a huge physical commitment.
We tell you more details here!
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Why did Joaquin Phoenix have a hard time adapting to Joker 2?
In 2020, Joaquin Phoenix revealed that he lost around 26 kilos to interpret the Arthur Fleck in the first part of Joker. But according to reports from Variety, As on this occasion the character I had to dance, The physical preparation was much more demanding for the actor.
“I’m 49 now, and I probably shouldn’t do this again.” confessed Joaquin Phoenix, “this is probably the last time for me.”
“I won’t talk in detail about my diet because I don’t think anyone wants to talk about it. But this time, I felt it was a little bit more complicated simply because we did a lot of dance rehearsals, which I didn’t do last time.
Joaquin Phoenix, Variety
Yes, it felt more difficult, but it was safe.”
Phoenix He confessed that Lady Gaga also lost weight to play the character, But the actress and singer simply said that “they did everything possible to embody the characters.”
Joaquin Phoenix also confessed that he “felt angry and disappointed in himself” for putting so much emphasis on his weight loss. As he explained, he became so obsessed with achieving a particular physique that he couldn’t help himself. “But in your job you just have to do what you have to do. So in (Joker 2) I won’t talk about that (if I lose weight).”
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Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga did sing on camera
The reasons why Joaquin Phoenix says Joker 2 was much more challenging, It is because on this occasion He had to sing live on camera in certain music scenes. In the past, Lady Gaga said she completely changed the range of her voice so that “Lee” felt different.
But Lady Gaga has extensive experience in the world of music, so Joaquin Phoenix He was originally hesitant to sing himself. “(Lady Gaga) told me: we have to sing live, and I said: no, we won’t, you can do it if you want. In the end we did it, because there was no other way” the actor confessed.
“Not only did we sing live, every part of the recording was live. We worked with a pianist on set, so every take was a different version of the song. That was very exciting and created an energy that was needed.”
Joaquin Phoenix, IndieWire
In this regard, Todd Phillips He assured that the first tape of Joker “has an intrinsic musicality that is almost like a character” So for this sequel, it seemed completely natural to make the musical numbers even bigger.
For now, Joker 2 began receiving mixed reviews, where the musical numbers are praised, but not much else. We will have to wait for the release in cinemas to find out how this experiment turned out.
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