Todd Phillips on Why Making ‘Joker 2’ With Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Made Him “More Nervous” Than the First Film

BATMAN’S WORST ENEMY HAS LANDED IN VENICE – DC Comics’ biggest baddie has arrived at the Venice Film Festival. Director Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga swept onto the Lido arm-in-arm Wednesday to discuss the creation of Warner Bros’ wildly anticipated sequel Joker: Folie à Deux. The director and his stars are in Italy in the same hope that the first Joker picture did when it achieved the crucial and commercial breakthrough in Venice that is winning the Golden Lion in 2019 – a title that very few Hollywood superhero movie got the chance to have. It was also a commercial success garnering over a billion dollars in the international market and Phoenix was awarded the Oscar for the best actor. 
 
During a press conference in Italy, Phillips said that it is right to be back in Venice for his sequel’s premiere, but admitted that the making of the sequel and getting it back to the oldest film festival makes him more nervous. 
 
“It’s a lot easier to come into something as an insurgent than it is as the incumbent,” he said. “You definitely get more nervous with this second one. ” 
 
Phillips said he and his star Phoenix constantly laughed to one another on the set during making of the first Joker their attempts would result in sequels in a typical Hollywood superhero pattern. But they did later on reconsider their decision of not coming back for a sequel on the condition that: “It has to feel brave and like we’re leaving no room for the ball to be caught”, as stated by Philips. The director recalled, they asked like, “Could we make something like the first one which was a surprise,though this is a sequel?” 
 
Phoenix reprises his role as Arthur Fleck for Joker sequel, Joker 2 while Stefani Germanotta alias Lady Gaga has been cast in the entertainment industry in a part based on the DC comic character, Harley Quinn. It is worth to add that the pair have a highly toxic love story in the comics, and the title, Folie à Deux, refers to a special term that is used to define an identical or similar Psychosis that occurs in two or more individuals who can be members of the same family. The other cast in the film are; the talented Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Zazie Beetz. 
 
Phillips and Phoenix declared that their concept of a sequel relies upon the idea of fully immersing themselves into the musical universe of the world that is in Arthur Fleck’s head. In the press conference that Philipps held early in the show, she said that the idea came to Phoenix in a dream, but the unpredictable star was not willing to talk about it to the reporters. A bit later, he agreed to do it partly, adding, “I had had this dream that I was performing as Joker doing songs, and I just called Todd because I thought there might be something there — and there wasn’t,” Phillips recalled, smiling and shaking his head, and the man nodded and laughed as well. 
 
Lady Gaga, whose real name, according to Phillips and Phoenix, is Stephanie, commented on working with Phoenix as being effortless: ‘It was a breeze’, she told him, smiling and then looking at her director and co-star and laughing, it was not clear whether at Phoenix’s somewhat checkered past or their working relationship on the film. 
 
Basically, I really liked it and it was clearly different experience that I have ever been with different actor,” Gaga said of her co star. “He is flexible and not stressed . ” 
 
When asked how much weight he shed for the film, Phoenix did not reveal the actual number of pounds that he dropped. “It felt a bit more difficult, but it is safe. But you’re right, I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me,” before saying to his co-star: “We did rehearsals and we left for a month and came back and you’d lost a lot of weight, it was really impressive. ” As for feeding, Gaga reported: “We fed [Joaquin] blueberries when he was hungry. ” 
 
In the middle of the press conference held in Italy, phoenix was also asked by one of the reporters to comment about the issue that arose after he signed up for the gay romance movie by director Todd Haynes only to back out at the last minute before shooting was set to commence. The move elicited the fury of Hollywood’s producer community, and has left Haynes and his associates in transitional state of disbelief. 
 
When asked about his stance about what has happened, Phoenix only stated that it wouldn’t be proper to say his piece as the other creatives involved in the movie are not around to speak as well. 
 
“I am not sure how that will benefit me so I think I will not do it” he concluded. 
 
Warner Bros’ official synopsis of the film reads: Joker: Folie à Deux is set toward the end of the first movie and discovered Arthur Fleck in Arkham asylum, preparing for trial in his crimes done as the Joker. Having gotten into internal conflict over his two worlds, Arthur is thrown into the realms of true love and music which has been inherent in him all along. 
 
The first reviews of the film were received by the press Wednesday morning on Venice. The regular viewers of movie theatres have given Phoenix a big round of applause for his tormented and unnerving transformation back into the protagonist of the film and a special attention has also been given to the grandiose musical numbers that have marked the superb and magnetic performance of Lady Gaga. 
 
Phillips was also asked by a journalist whether the sequel was in some way a reaction to divided reactions to the first movie that was interpreted by some critics as embodying and even celebrating violence as an act of retribution for masculine, incel entitlement — interpretation that the journalist asking the question referred to as “unfair. ” 
 
Phillips stated that he did not have any intention to respond to such critiques but admitted that some are deserved while some are aldough he thinks that the first film was painted with a kind of an interesting brush. 
 
“I understand what people’s concerns were,” he added, “But no, I mean, this movie was not in response to that at all,” because he said that it, “Movies are way too hard to do as a statement in response to something. ”

“When in making Joker in 2018, we could not have anticipated that it would resonate with people globally in the way it did,” Phillips says in his letter to the 78th Venice International Film Festival in the creation of Joker 2. “I did say it to Joaquin once, but we were never that earnest about it until we saw the reaction to Arthur’s story. if we’re going to do it, we got to go big, right? Had to go for the neck, go for broke like Joker We did just that, so Scott Silver and I wrote the script and took the identity to another level. ” 
 
The director didn’t rule out returning to work within the gritty DC universe he’s created with the Joker films, but emphasized that it would depend on whether any interesting actors, like Phoenix, are willing to collaborate with him on such a project: “When it comes to chalking up another one in this genre, as a filmmaker most likely not — but for me, the word ‘not’ is almost impossible to come by,” Phillips said. When asked if there are any projects that shouldn’t be described as actor-oriented, Phillips responds, “everything I do is dictated on actors,” continuing, “what actor could I work with? Who am I dying to work with and could I build something around that person Certainly, these films have been built around Joaquin and then introducted Gaga. ” 
 
For the audiences that might have a hard time following all the superhero films that Hollywood is producing, the Joker sequel falls under the DC Elseworlds banner which means Enigma, stories outside of the DCU are being developed by James Gunn and Peter Safran of DC Studios. That also refers to Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II movie and the HBO Max Penguin series. 
 
Joker 2 hits the North America theaters on Oct. 4.