New York City transformed into Gotham City over the weekend as Lady Gaga filmed a scene for “Joker: Folie à Deux” in the Big Apple.
Numerous set photos of Gaga walking through a crowd of extras and actors in Gotham police uniforms began circulating Saturday on Getty Images and social media.
In the images, the singer and movie star can be seen wearing clownish makeup, a red blazer, a black-and-white blouse, a black miniskirt and patterned black tights. Also visible are a few background actors sporting clown masks and wigs. Others are carrying protest signs with phrases such as “Free Joker” and “Joker Marry Me.”
Gaga is widely expected to play cackling villain Harley Quinn in the highly anticipated sequel to 2019’s “Joker.” Though Warner Bros. and DC Studios have not specified Gaga’s role in the film, the “Chromatica” artist confirmed last summer that she had been cast as the female lead opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck.
Unlike the first “Joker” movie, “Folie à Deux” will be a musical. Not much else has been revealed about the plot of the follow-up, which launched production in December 2022, according to an Instagram post from director Todd Phillips. On Valentine’s Day, Phillips shared a still of Gaga and Phoenix gripping each other’s faces to promote the project.
In 2020, “Joker” was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning the awards for lead actor (Phoenix) and original score (Hildur Guðnadóttir). Phoenix told The Times in 2019 that he asked Phillips to start working on a sequel during the second or third week of filming “Joker” because there was “way too much to explore.”
“It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that [‘Joker’] does,” Phillips told The Times in 2019.
“Because I think that’s ultimately why the movie connected, it’s what’s going on underneath. So many movies are about the spark, and this is about the powder. If you could capture that again in a real way, that would be interesting.”
