Lady Gaga has finally commented on the negative reviews that Joker: Folie à Deux received after its release last fall.
The original Joker (2019) was a massive success both critically and at the box office, earning over $1 billion and winning two Academy Awards. However, the sequel took a different approach, adding Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, the love interest of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, along with musical elements. The first film was celebrated for its dark tone and fresh take on the Batman villain’s origin, while Folie à Deux only made slightly over $200 million and failed to secure any Oscar nominations. In fact, it received seven Razzies.
In a recent interview with Elle magazine, Gaga shared her thoughts on the film’s negative reception.
“People just sometimes don’t like some things,” Gaga said. “It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
She also reflected on how fear of failure can affect a person.
“When that makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of. It’s part of the mayhem,” she added.
Gaga’s views on Joker 2 were more positive compared to one of the film’s own cast members, comedian Tim Dillon, who called it “the worst film ever made.”
“It has no plot,” Dillon said. “We would sit there, me and these other guys dressed in these security outfits because we’re working at the Arkham Asylum, and I would turn to one of them and we’d hear this crap and I’d go, ‘What the f*** is this?’ And they’d go, ‘This is going to bomb, man.’ I go, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ We were talking about it at lunch, and we’d go, ‘What is the plot? Is there a plot? I don’t know, I think he falls in love with her in the prison?’ It’s not even hate-watchable. That’s how terrible it is.”
In contrast, director Quentin Tarantino praised Joker 2, calling Phoenix’s performance “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.”
After releasing a companion album for Joker 2 titled Harlequin last fall, Gaga announced that her next album, Mayhem, will be released on March 7.
“The album started as me facing my fear of returning to the pop music my earliest fans loved,” Gaga said about the project, describing the process as “reassembling a shattered mirror: even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way.”
In her Elle interview, Gaga also discussed her support for Kamala Harris in the presidential race and her performance at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration.
“The main thing is I have so much compassion and love for so many people that are afraid today,” she said. “I want to acknowledge I’m a very blessed person and I feel really grateful for so much in my life every day. I know for a lot of people this election was devastating for their existence and so community is going to be the number one thing. This just reminds me that we need each other and supporting each other is important. I am one of many people that supports [the LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized] communities. And we’re not going down without a fight. We will stick together. It’s going to be hard but I’m up for it. We’re up for it. And I just want everyone to know how deeply they’re loved and not invisible.”
