Lady Gaga Responds To Joker 2 Backlash: “People Just Sometimes Don’t Like Some Things”
Lady Gaga isn’t losing sleep over the harsh criticism of Joker: Folie à Deux. The 38-year-old singer and actress, who starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the highly anticipated sequel, addressed the backlash in her new Elle cover story. While many expected the film to follow in the footsteps of the billion-dollar-grossing original, it failed to connect with audiences, earning just $207.5 million at the box office and receiving a disappointing 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But Gaga’s response? Unbothered. “People just sometimes don’t like some things,” she said. “It’s that simple.”
Unlike the gritty and grounded tone of the first Joker film, the sequel took an unexpected turn —into a musical. While musicals like Wicked have proven that audiences will still flock to theaters for song-and-dance spectacles, Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t quite hit the right note. Some fans were caught off guard, only realizing the film was a musical after buying tickets, as the marketing downplayed that aspect.
In an earlier interview with Empire Magazine, Gaga admitted that singing in the film was one of the biggest challenges of her career — not because of her vocal ability, but because she had to strip away her usual training. Playing a non-professional singer, she had to unlearn everything she knew. “I’m a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee,” she explained, referencing her character.
“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,” she said.
Despite the film’s reception, Gaga isn’t shaken. She believes that taking creative risks is part of being an artist. “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 you intended,” she told Elle.
What truly scares her isn’t a failed project — it’s losing her nerve. “When that [fear of failure] makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of. It’s part of the mayhem,” she said, slyly referencing her upcoming album.
Set to drop on March 7, Mayhem is Gaga’s eighth studio album and is shaping up to be a genre-bending experience. She described it as a mix of “‘90s alternative, electro-grunge, Prince and Bowie melodies, guitar and attitude, funky bass lines, French electronic dance, and analog synths.” Much like her previous music, Gaga envisions her songs in colors. “Every song is a different shade. A lot of the songs on this album have a maroon, brown color to them,” she shared, comparing it to the “reddish” tones of Bad Romance.
Mayhem follows Harlequin, her jazz-inspired album from last year, which served as a companion piece to Joker: Folie à Deux.
