This is our first official look at Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” via Todd Phillips’ Instagram account.
As mentioned earlier this morning, shooting has wrapped on the film. Now a lengthy post-production phase is expected since ‘Folie à Deux’ is only set to be released in October of 2024.
It was a major risk casting Gaga as one of the lead roles in this film, and I do wonder about how her on-screen chemistry with Joaquin Phoenix will be. These are two very different actors who will make a rather unusual pairing.
While we’re at it, we might as well tackle the elephant in the room .. Is Lady Gaga even a good actress? Yes, she was Oscar-nominated for Best Actress in 2019, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she deserved it.
Gaga's performance in “A Star is Born” was fine during the first hour, but not the second. She started to lose control of her character as the role began to demand more emotional context and less musicality during the latter half. She couldn’t hit the dramatic notes at all. In fact, her performance became damn-near strained by the end of it.
In “House of Gucci”, her performance was a more-than-decent kind of thing, but she shouldn’t have won Best Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle.
Gaga was half-good in “A Star is Born,” and flamboyantly over-the-top in ‘Gucci’ — her acting fails whenever scenes call for nuance, but the good news is that there wasn’t much nuance to begin with in Ridley Scott’s Italian soap opera. The ‘Gucci’ performance somewhat worked in and of itself, even if her face barely moved and her accent sounded more Russian than Italian.
The ‘Gucci’ performance wasn’t anything more than what a competent actress could pull off. It wasn’t that complex of a role. I consistently felt like she was ACTING and it felt very theatre to me. Entertaining to watch? Sure. Artful? Absolutely not.
So, is Lady Gaga a good actress? I’m not really convinced. ‘Folie A Deux’ will maybe be her biggest test as an actress. She’ll feel comfortably at home with it being a musical, but, acting-wise, being paired alongside an unpredictable performer like Joaquin Phoenix could easily expose her flaws.
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.