A new interview with Joker: Folie à Deux cinematographer Lawrence Sher has shed new light on Lady Gaga's performance in the highly-anticipated sequel.
Apparently, Sher was having somewhat of a difficult time with the Grammy and Academy Award winner- that is, until he started calling her Lee (presumably short for Harley).
Looking back on the production in an interview with The Trenches Podcast, Sher stated that he never really got to know Lady Gaga.
'“I didn’t know Stefani (Lady Gaga's real name is Stefani Germanotta) at all. Strangely, I felt like I never even met her, even during the makeup/hair tests. Because again, maybe it was my philosophy of not trying to get in their space. And then I remember for a week, being like, god, I feel like we are disconnecting. Not even connecting. We are like on opposites. And I would say to my crew, ‘Jesus, I can’t, like, crack it. She either hates me or we hate each other. There’s something weird going on here."
Apparently, the assistant director came to his rescue and explained that the Harley Quinn actress would respond much better to being called Lee.
"Oh you know, Stef would like if you just called her Lee on set.’ And I was like, oh, 100 percent, and I literally said, the next thing I said, was something ‘Lee,’ and it was like everything changed. From that point on, it was like she was… our whole connection changed. I was like, alright, cool."
Lady Gaga is actually infamous for staying in character.
During filming for A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga reportedly stayed in character for over a year. "I would actually say playing a character for me is like living one long song, one long song that lasts for months,” Gaga previously told Variety. “For ‘A Star Is Born,’ it was years for me."
That level of dedication secured a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Gaga's turn in A Star is Born and also led to the pop star picking up the win for Best Original Song.
The Joker sequel is said to actually be a musical- a sharp departure from the dramatic work on display in the first film.
It will be interesting to see if Phillips strikes lightning twice after the first film went on to gross over $1 billion at the global box office from a meager $60 million production budget.