Lady Gaga says Joker 2 singing is “unlike anything I’ve ever done before”

We all know Lady Gaga can belt out one hell of a tune, but the upcoming Joker: Folie À Deux will feature the singer as we’ve never heard her before. While speaking with Empire, Lady Gaga explained why she needed to reinvent her voice for her role as Harley Quinn/Lee in the Joker sequel.

“People know me by my stage name, Lady Gaga, right? That’s me as that performer, but that is not what this movie is; I’m playing a character,” she explained. “So I worked a lot on the way that I sang to come from Lee, and to not come from me as a performer. How do you take music and have it just be an extension of the dialogue, as opposed to breaking into song for no conceivable reason? It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.“

Although Lady Gaga is an accomplished singer, the actress didn’t think her character would be on the same level, so she worked to make her vocal performance a little rougher than she normally would. “For me, there’s plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee,” she said. “I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. When I breathe to sing on stage, I have this very controlled way to make sure that I’m on pitch and it’s sustained at the right rhythm and amount of time, but Lee would never know how to do any of that. So it’s like removing the technicality of the whole thing, removing my perceived art-form from it all and completely being inside of who she is.“

Just days ago, a brand-new trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux was released, which really highlighted the musical aspect of the sequel. It’s been reported that the sequel will be something of a “jukebox musical” with “at least 15 reinterpretations of very well-known songs.“

In addition to Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, the Joker sequel also stars Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey. Zazie Beetz also returns to reprise her role as Sophie Dumond from the first movie, a love interest for Arthur. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s been said that much of the sequel will take place within Arkham Asylum, which is where we left Arthur in the last film. Joker: Folie à Deux will hit theaters on October 4th. Find out everything we know about the movie right here!