Lady Gaga Says She Had to Change Her Singing Voice to Play Harley Quinn in ‘Joker 2’: I Was ‘Removing the Technicality’

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read

Lady Gaga is debuting a new stage persona, complete with different vocal chops, for her take on Harley “Lee” Quinn.

The Grammy and Oscar winner told Empire magazine that her portrayal of the iconic character that originated in the “Batman the Animated Series” show will reveal a new side of herself. Quinn is canonically a psychiatrist who treats Arthur Fleck AKA the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) in Arkham Asylum.

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“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,” Gaga said. “So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee, and to not come from me as a performer.”

Part of that was shedding her professionally trained voice and instead tapping into a less refined side.

“For me, there’s plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee,” Gaga said of her singing in the musical film. “I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. 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.”

According to Gaga, “Joker: Folie á Deux” incorporates songs to shift the storyline forward in lieu of dialogue.

“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?” Gaga said. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”

Casting director Francine Maisler previously said during the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that Gaga was a surprise casting choice as Quinn.

“I didn’t suggest Lady Gaga. It wasn’t my idea. That was [director] Todd Phillips, before me,” Maisler said. “But I will tell you, she’s really surprising — and really good. I saw it and I was really surprised. I mean, we all knew what she could do in ‘A Star is Born,’ but I thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s kind of in her wheelhouse.’ Something she could do and just be real. But this… Man, she’s good. Joaquin blows your mind, but that she could keep up with him, and be real — and not just wiped off the screen by what that role is and what the performance is — shows she’s good. […] She’s going to blow your mind.”

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