It’s a big month for Lady Gaga fans: She stars alongside Joaquin Phoenix as Lee Quinzel in Joker: Folie à Deux, out on October 4, and just this past weekend she released Harlequin—the film’s accompanying album. The superstar hit the London premiere of Joker last week, and hosted a private listening party of the album for fans. Between the two events, Vogue caught up with the October cover star as she shared her creative process for the two projects.
“It was a really special, exciting experience delivering the movie to the world,” she says. “Arianne Phillips and I worked on styling this film together; We had this tall order, because there’s this idea that people have of Harley Quinn, and we wanted to create something completely new. The clothes were kind of immature, indicative of a younger mind.”
Gaga also touched on her red carpet look for the London premiere—a custom red Celine gown with a matching puff-sleeved bolero jacket. Given that she and designer Hedi Slimane have fashion history, he was a natural choice for her very first Joker press tour look. “We’ve known each other for a really long time—he photographed me for the cover of my album The Fame Monster,” she says. “[The look was] meant to be elegant and a little bit rebellious. Two things I like!”
The Harlequin listening party was another topic of discussion; the concept cover album features tracks like “Smile,” “The Joker,” and “That’s Life.” (Read Vogue’s review of it here.) She produced the recored with her fiancé, Michael Polansky. “Harlequin is my interpretation of all the music in the film, as well as couple of originals,” she says. “We went through this really special experience making Joker together. I wasn’t done with Lee when I was done filming the movie.” The original song “Happy Mistake” has emerged as a favorite. “That song is a very personal look at the human being that played Lee,” she says, “and my relationship with playing broken women throughout my career in different ways.”
As the album racks in plays, and hype for the film continues ahead of its release, Gaga hopes the two projects will resonate with Little Monsters in the way that it has stayed with her. “I have such amazing fans. Seeing them out in London tonight was so fun,” Gaga says. “They already had printouts of the Harlequin cover and they had the makeup. That was so cool to see.” Watch the full video above.
