Lady Gaga has spoken about the poor critical reception to Joker: Folie à Deux, in which she played Harley Quinn alongside Joaquin Phoenix‘s Joker.
Following 2019’s hugely-successful Joker, its sequel faced mounting anticipation due in part to the first film’s positive, though controversial, reception, along with the addition of Gaga to the cast.
The film’s release in October, however, was met with hugely negative reviews by critics along with a dismal performance at the box office. Tim Dillon, who appeared in the film as an Arkham Asylum security guard, revealed that he and his fellow cast members were already skeptical about the film’s final cut during production.
Gaga, on the other hand, previously called director Todd Phillips’ decision to make the sequel a musical as “a very big swing” and also praised the film’s “audacity and complexity”.
Now, in a new interview with Elle, Gaga was asked about the film’s public reception. “People just sometimes don’t like some things,” she responded. “It’s that simple.”
“I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it,” she continued. “And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
The film was not without its supporters: Quentin Tarantino famously said he “really, really liked” the sequel and responded to the backlash following his praise by saying, “Who gives a fuck what I like? What do you care what the fuck I like?”.
Folie À Deux also became the first Hollywood comic book movie adaptation to earn a ‘D’ score from CinemaScore – even maligned films such as The Marvels or The Flash managed to secure a ‘B’ grade. It also sat on a lowly 32 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an identical audience score.
Gaga is currently preparing the release of her upcoming studio album ‘Mayhem’, which is out in March. In the Elle interview, she described it as “utter chaos” in terms of genre – saying that its influences span from “’90s alternative, electro-grunge, Prince and Bowie melodies, guitar and attitude, funky bass lines, French electronic dance, and analog synths.”
