Lady Gaga has finally spoken publicly about the critically panned Joker: Folie À Deux flopping last year, saying that artists have to be willing to fail, adding that sometimes people just “don’t like” stuff.
Released last October, Joker: Folie À Deux was the expensive musical sequel to 2019’s surprise blockbuster Joker. Joaquin Phoenix returned to play Arthur Fleck/Joker alongside new cast member Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. The movie had a lot of hype ahead of release, but upon release critics hated it. Fans didn’t care for it, either. And worst of all, it wasn’t even a fun kind of bad, but just a boring jukebox musical that wasted Gaga’s talents and retroactively made the first movie worse with its bizarre ending. It grossed $207 million on a reported budget of $200 million, which means it flopped hard. And now Lady Gaga has shared her feelings on the WB and DC’s failed sequel.
In a new interview with Elle Magazine the famous pop star, actor, and Fortnite character talked about her upcoming album, Mayhem, and also briefly talked about Joker 2 without directly naming the flick.
“People just sometimes don’t like some things,” Gaga told the outlet. “It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
Gaga further explained that the fear of failure can be a problem for artists and added: “When that makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of. It’s part of the mayhem.”
While Gaga’s comments don’t change the movie or make it better, they do point to the reality that making art isn’t easy and it only gets harder after you fail or make a mistake. And hey, don’t be too upset Lady Gaga, according to Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, in the decades to come, people will turn around on Joker 2 and love it. So you’ve got that to look forward to in 2035!