Joker: Folie à Deux premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 4, and ahead of the premiere, stars Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, along with director Todd Phillips, spoke to the press about the movie.

Joker: Folie à Deux features fantasy sequences in which Gaga and Phoenix — as Harley Quinn and Arthur Fleck/Joker — sing classic songs. Phillips said he cast Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, in the film after deciding to incorporate music into the sequel.

“If you remember the first film, Arthur has a musicality to him. He is often dancing to express the way he feels,” Phillips said, according to Deadline. “So when it started taking shape with actual music elements we thought, ‘What if we got Lady Gaga, who actually brings music with her?’”

While on set, Gaga and Phoenix sang all the numbers live.

“Stefani said early on that we’re singing live and I said, ‘No we’re not,’” Phoenix said. “And then we did. Not only did we sing live, but every part of the recording was live. Each take was a different version of the song.” 

But Gaga said she wouldn’t necessarily call the film a musical, explaining, “The music is used to really give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and dialogue is just not enough.”

Phoenix also talked about his weight loss for the role, which he said was more difficult for him this time than in the original film. According to Variety, he added, “Stefani also lost a lot of weight. I remember when I first met you … then you went away and when you came back, you lost a lot of weight. It was really impressive.”

However, Gaga wouldn’t elaborate.

Instead, she said, “I think we transformed into our characters over a period of time.”

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