Why Did Joker: Folie à Deux Director Remove Lady Gaga’s Kissing Scene With A Woman? Find Out
One of the paparazzi photos captured during the filming of the recently released Joker: Folie à Deux, showed Lady Gaga who plays Harleen Quinzel aka Harkey Quinn sharing a kiss with a woman. However, it was not seen in the final cut of the film.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly director Todd Philips revealed why cutting the scene — said to be improvised by Gaga herself — was important to the vision he had for the sequence. “It had dialogue in it, and, all of a sudden, I wanted it to be more of a music and vibe moment,” he told the outlet.
The moment between Harley Quinn and the lady had a context without which it didn’t make much sense. Phillips recalled that the woman said something to the Poker Face singer’s character, prompting her to plant a peck on her lips. “The woman said something, and then Gaga stopped and did this thing, and it just kind of got in the way of the moment,” he added.
The scene would have taken place before one of Arthur Fleck aka Joker’s (Joaquin Phoenix) court appearances. The musical sequel follows the aftermath of the 2019’s Joker with Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent prosecuting Joker for the crimes he had committed.
While remaining imprisoned in Arkham State Hospital, he meets the titular Lee (Gaga), and their relationship blossoms into romance. After Lee’s been released from prison, she enters the courthouse to support Joker and performs a musical number while walking up the stairs. However, in the originally shot version, she meets a bunch of protesters on the way and plants a kiss on the woman in the crowd.
The director also revealed to the outlet that Phoenix was nervous to perform live musical numbers next to his Academy Award- and Grammy-winning costar. Phillips previously told EW that the Oscar-nominated actor was “sick every day” worrying about nailing the performances and choreography. He also recalled Gaga and Phoenix exchanging notes.
“The truth is, they gave each other pointers. He’d give her pointers about acting; she’s been in movies, but he’s Joaquin Phoenix. She gave him tips about music because she’s Lady Gaga,” he added.
