Director Says Lady Gaga Same-Sex Kissing Scene Cut From ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Because It ‘Got in the Way of the Moment’

Chances are you didn’t see Joker: Folie à Deux over the weekend because the much-hyped sequel to the Oscar-winning 2019 Batman-adjacent film vastly underperformed expectations with an estimated $40 million opening frame; by comparison the original raked in more than $96 million and ended up grossing more than $1 billion.

But even if you were one of the brave who ventured out to watch Joaquin Phoenix’s demented Arthur Fleck fall in love with his equally felony-minded paramour Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), what you didn’t see was a same-sex kiss between Gaga and a random woman. According to EW, paparazzi photos from the film’s shoot appeared to show a scene where Gaga and an unnamed woman shared a tender moment.

Director Todd Phillips told the magazine that he had to cut that bit for a very good reason. The scene was supposed to take place just before Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck arrives for a court appearance attended by his former Arkham State Hospital ward mate Lee. While walking up the steps, Gaga does a musical number as she makes her way to the courtroom.

The original shot had Gaga passing some protesters and laying her lips on a woman in the crowd — a move she improvised — but Phillips said it just didn’t work. “It had dialogue in it, and, all of a sudden, I wanted it to be more of a music and vibe moment,” Phillips said. “For that moment to have played, it needed dialogue behind it. Meaning, the woman said something, and then Gaga stopped and did this thing, and it just kind of got in the way of the moment.”

The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Joker: Folie à Deux a “bomb,” saying the film that became the first Hollywood comic book movie ever to earn a D CinemaScore from audiences while vastly underperforming expectations despite costing almost three times more to make ($190) than the original. The expected global debut for the opening weekend of the sequql is in the $121 million range.

Check out an image of the cut kiss below.