The sequel to director Todd Phillips’ hit film about one of cinema’s most iconic villains marked the Venice Film Festival yesterday, where Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga stole much of the limelight. The pair of artists caused a sensation on the red carpet, especially the latter, who turned up with her eyebrows dyed platinum blonde and dressed as a black widow. Entitled Joker: Folie à deux, the new film will take up the story of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), who, while facing the death penalty for having committed five murders, meets Harley Queen in the asylum where he has been confined, the character that the American singer and songwriter will embody and who will accentuate his madness.
Playing Batman’s nemesis has been a huge challenge for the actors who brought him to the big screen. Phoenix acknowledged after the release of the film that won him his first Oscar in 2018 that playing the famous clown had affected him psychologically, and there are plenty of rumours linking the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger to his role as the Joker in the acclaimed film The Dark Knight. The challenge is also evident on a physical level, a topic that Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga discussed on Wednesday at a press conference with the film’s screenwriter and director.
A loss of 24 kilos
Phoenix has been on a diet based on lettuce and steamed vegetables.
To reach Arthur Fleck’s unhealthy weight, the actor who also played Commodus in Gladiator (the second part will be released on November 15, 2024), has said that he has lost about 24 kilos. The method? A diet where lettuce and steamed vegetables were the base, he says. The Guardian. A doctor has been with him throughout the process to ensure that this major dietary change would not affect his health, but Phoenix acknowledged that diets of this type can cause obsessive behavior.
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“I’m not going to go into the details of the diet, but it was a little bit more difficult to stick to this this time because we had to combine it with dance rehearsals, which I didn’t have to do last time. I’m 49 years old and I probably shouldn’t go through a physical change like this again,” the actor explained. Gaga has also lost a lot of weight to play her role. At the press conference he said that “we transform into our characters over time and continue to perfect every kind of detail.” He added that during filming they gave Phoenix blueberries to calm his hunger.
Phoenix and Gaga at the press conference this Wednesday
AFP
The singer-songwriter took the opportunity to deny that this new film is a musical. In it, she maintained, “the characters use music to express what they want to say.” And she revealed that, precisely, another great challenge she had to face was “unlearning her vocal technique, forgetting to breathe and singing a duet with Phoenix live in each take.”
Philips and Phoenix have expressed their hope that this sequel will be as crazy and surprising as the first. Joker: Folie à Deux is one of the big releases coming this fall and is expected to give a considerable boost to the box office in the last quarter: the first film was the sixth highest grossing film of 2019.