Joaquin Phoenix Talks Lady Gaga ‘Spitting Up Coffee’ the First Time She Heard Him Sing on ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Set

Sure, Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck (aka the Joker) in 2020. But even an award-winning actor gets nervous on set when he has to sing in front of one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Luckily for Phoenix, when it came to giving the greasepaint goon a voice voice, his partner in crime, Lady Gaga, was totally there for him.

“I do seem to remember her spitting up coffee the first time I sang, so that felt good, that was exciting, and made me feel confident,” Phoenix told Empire magazine about the Grammy-winning singer’s reaction on the set of the upcoming Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. “Gaga was always very encouraging of just, ‘Go with what you feel, it’s fine.’ For somebody who’s not a performer in that way, it can be… uncomfortable to do that, but also very exciting.”

It was important that they bond that way because director Todd Phillips wanted to bring the music out of the Joker, who at his core is a mercurial, failed comedian whose violent acts land him in Arkham Asylum, where he strikes up a lyrical love story with Gaga’s Harley “Lee” Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn.

“Arthur has become this symbol to people,” Phillips told the magazine. “This unwilling, unwitting symbol now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the only thing he ever wanted, which was love. That’s always what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that.”

That expression of love comes through in musical numbers in the film, because, as Phillips said, Fleck has “music in him,” which explains why the latest trailer has Gaga singing the classic tune “Get Happy” and Phoenix tackling “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)” in Fleck’s raspy croon.

“It was important to protect that with poor phrasing and occasional bum notes,” Phoenix said in an echo of a recent interview with Gaga where she admitted to purposely tanking her award-winning voice to get into character. “Arthur grew up hearing his mother play these songs on the radio. He’s not a singer, and he shouldn’t sound like a professional singer. He should sound like somebody that’s taking a shower and just bursts out into song.”

Joker: Folie à Deux will open in theaters on Oct. 4.