Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (2024)

1986-present

Lady Gaga News: Double-Threat Stars as Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie à Deux

Lady Gaga is gracing the big screen once again in the musical thriller Joker: Folie à Deux. Starring alongside Joaquin Phoenix, the 38-year-old musician and actor plays the DC Comics character Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, also known as Harley Quinn. The movie, which arrived in theaters October 4, is the sequel to the 2019 supervillain origin story Joker.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Gaga revealed her character had a “profound effect” on her. “I was able to discover the character through the story, through the music that we did live every day, as well as dance and the costumes and the makeup,” Gaga said. “So I kind of had this deep experience with the character, and she just didn’t really leave me creatively, and I decided I wanted to make a whole album inspired by her.”

That new record, Harlequin, released September 27. It serves as a companion album to Joker 2’s soundtrack, which heavily features Gaga. She wrote the original song “Folie à Deux” for the movie in addition to performing nine tracks.

Listen to Harlequin on Amazon Music, Apple Music, or Spotify

Jump to:

  • Who Is Lady Gaga?
  • Quick Facts
  • Early Life
  • Music Career
  • Hit Songs
  • Albums
  • Movies and TV Shows
  • Fiancé Michael Polansky
  • Bold Fashion
  • Net Worth
  • Quotes

Who Is Lady Gaga?

International pop star Lady Gaga is a Grammy-winning musician known for the songs “Born This Way,” “Just Dance,” and “Shallow.” She is also a respected actor with notable roles in the TV show American Horror Story and in the 2018 movie A Star Is Born, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The New York City native, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, skyrocketed to success following her 2008 debut album and has collected 13 Grammy Awards and an Oscar for her music. Twice named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, the certified double-threat stars in the 2024 supervillain movie Joker: Folie à Deux.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
BORN: March 28, 1986
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

Early Life

Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, was born on March 28, 1986, in New York City to Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta. She has a younger sister named Natali.

Stefani learned to play the piano by age 4. When she was 11 years old, she was accepted to the Juilliard School in Manhattan but instead attended a private Catholic school elsewhere in New York City. She continued studying music and performing, wrote her first piano ballad at age 13, and held her first performance in a New York nightclub as a 14-year-old.

A few years later, Stefani was granted early admission to New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts—she was one of only 20 students in the world to receive the honor of early acceptance that year. While there, she studied music and worked on her songwriting skills. She later withdrew from school to find creative inspiration. To make ends meet, she took three jobs, including a stint as a go-go dancer, while she honed her performance art.

Music Career

Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (1)

Lady Gaga immediately captivated many fans, known as little monsters, after releasing her first album in 2008.

In 2005, Germanotta was briefly signed by Def Jam Records but was dropped just months later. The experience propelled the teenaged singer to perform on her own in clubs and venues on New York City’s Lower East Side. There, she collaborated with several rock bands and began her experimentation with fashion.

When she was 20, Germanotta began working as an intern at Interscope Records, where she wrote songs for artists like Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, and The Pussycat Dolls. A year later, in 2007, R&B musician Akon signed her to Kon Live, a label under the Interscope umbrella, after seeing her perform at her burlesque show “Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue.” It was then that she adopted her stage name, which was inspired by the Queen song “Radio Ga-Ga.”

In August 2008, Gaga released her debut studio album, The Fame. The record received positive reviews and was successful in the United States. With the help of her own creative team, dubbed Haus of Gaga, the performer also began to make a name for herself internationally. It wasn’t long before she began earning accolades for her music.

In 2010, Gaga won her first two Grammy Awards for The Fame and her single “Poker Face.” Following the release of her 2009 EP The Fame Monster, which was considered a second volume of her debut album, she earned three more Grammys, one for the EP and two for the track “Bad Romance” and its corresponding music video. In total, the singer has earned 13 Grammys in her 16 years as a pop star. She has been nominated for Album of the Year four times and Song of the Year three times but has yet to win either of these coveted Grammy honors.

Known for her theatrics and unique fashion, Gaga has put on more than a few stellar performances in her career. In addition to touring, she performed the national anthem at Super Bowl 50 in 2016. The following year, she returned to headline the Super Bowl LI halftime show. Her powerhouse performance began on the roof of NRG Stadium in Houston as she sang parts of “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land” before diving to the stage with the help of suspension wires. Gaga’s halftime show included a medley of her songs “Edge of Glory,” “Bad Romance,” “Poker Face,” “Born This Way,” “Telephone,” “Just Dance,” as well as “Million Reasons.”

In February 2016, a red-wigged Gaga performed a David Bowie tribute medley with guitarist Nile Rodgers at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, one month after Bowie’s death. Also that February, she sang “Til It Happens to You” at the 88th Annual Academy Awards. Gaga co-wrote and performed the song, which was competing for the Best Original Song Oscar, for the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground about rape on college campuses. Assault survivors were brought to the stage toward the end of the performance, which earned a standing ovation. The song ultimately lost out on the award, but Gaga has since received two additional nominations in the category and won the trophy with A Star Is Born’s “Shallow in February 2019.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (2)

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga first worked together for a 2011 album he released. The pair then released two collaboration albums of their own.

By that point, Gaga was already several nights into her Las Vegas residency, which began in December 2018, at MGM Resorts’ Park Theater. The acclaimed singer-songwriter actually performed two separate shows over 39 dates: Lady Gaga Enigma, a collection of her most popular songs, and Lady Gaga Jazz & Piano, which features stripped-down versions of her greatest hits as well as selections from the Great American Songbook. Although Gaga is best known as a pop star, she is also a celebrated jazz singer who has released two jazz albums with the late crooner Tony Bennett. She revived her Jazz & Piano residency from June to July 2024 at the Dolby Live theater inside Park MGM.

Just weeks after her short residency, Gaga opened the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics in July, singing Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc En Plume” while surrounded by women holding pink feathered pom poms. “I hope you love this performance as much as I do,” Gaga wrote in an Instagram post. “And to everyone in France, thank you so much for welcoming me to your country to sing in honor of you—it’s a gift I’ll never forget!” Days later, it was revealed her performance was prerecorded due to safety concerns about the weather.

Hit Songs

Ever since the release of her first single “Just Dance” in 2008, Lady Gaga has produced hit after hit. The pop star has had an impressive 37 songs make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including five No. 1 hits and 18 songs in the top 10. The Grammy-nominated “Just Dance” spent three weeks at No. 1 in January 2009, while the No. 1 hit “Poker Face” delivered Gaga her first Grammy win in 2010 for Best Dance Recording. “Born This Way” debuted atop the Hot 100 in February 2011 and stayed there for six weeks. Years later, the chart-topping duets “Shallow” with actor Bradley Cooper for the 2018 movie A Star Is Born and “Rain on Me” with Ariana Grande earned Gaga three more Grammys.

Some of Gaga’s other hit songs include “Bad Romance,” “Telephone,” “You and I,” “Million Reasons,” “Paparazzi,” “Joanne,” and most recently, “Die With a Smile” with Bruno Mars. Although she has never won, Gaga has competed multiple times for the top Grammy Awards of Song and Record of the Year. Her three contenders for Song of the Year were “Poker Face,” “Shallow,” and “Always Remember Us This Way,” another hit from A Star Is Born. “Shallow” was also in the running for Record of the Year as was Gaga’s 2021 duet with Tony Bennett on the Cole Porter song “I Get a Kick Out of You.”

Albums

Lady Gaga’s first studio album The Fame was released to much success in August 2008. It sold the equivalent of 1 million copies within a year and is now a multiplatinum-certified record. The following year, the pop star dropped her EP The Fame Monster in November 2009, which was considered a second part to her debut album. Both records won Grammys and were nominated in the prestigious Album of the Year category.

Since then, Gaga has released five more studio albums and two collaborative records with Tony Bennett. Her latest work, Harlequin, is a companion album to the Joker sequel she starred in.

Beyond her own music, Gaga has also contributed to several movie soundtracks, most prominently for A Star Is Born (2018). The album heavily features Gaga and her co-star Bradley Cooper. Their duet “Shallow,” one of 12 songs the pop star co-wrote for the soundtrack, become a commercial and critical smash. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100, won two Grammy Awards, and earned the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Other hit tracks were “Always Remember Us This Way” and the Grammy-winning tune “I’ll Never Love Again.” In 2020, the album won the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media.

Gaga’s additional soundtrack work can be found in support of the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground, the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, and 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux. She earned Grammy and Academy Award nominations for her contributions to The Hunting Ground and Top Gun 2.

Movies and TV Shows

With her music career firmly established, Lady Gaga began breaking on the acting scene in the early 2010s. She made a brief cameo appearance as an alien in Men in Black 3 before her true debut in the 2013 action-comedy Machete Kills. She portrayed La Camaleón, an assassin tasked with taking down the title character, Machete, played by Danny Trejo. The following year, she played Bertha in the action-crime film Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

American Horror Story

Beginning in fall 2015, Gaga showed her talent as an actor once again in American Horror Story: Hotel. She starred as the bloodsucking Countess and earned a Golden Globe for her performance in the anthology series’ fifth season. “I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer, but music worked out first,” a visibly stunned and emotional Gaga said during her acceptance speech.

Gaga returned to the show for its sixth season in 2016. She played an immortal witch in American Horror Story: Roanoke.

Gaga: Five Foot Two Documentary

The singer released a documentary on Netflix, Gaga: Five Foot Two, in 2017. The project chronicled the production of her studio album Joanne as well as her Super Bowl halftime performance. The film was named Best Music Documentary at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards.

A Star Is Born

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Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper earned major acclaim for their performances in 2018’s A Star Is Born, which Cooper directed.

Gaga found herself back on the big screen as she and Bradley Cooper starred in the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born. Her iconic character Ally was a role previously inhabited by Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, and Barbra Streisand. The film gained wide critical acclaim and grossed an impressive $436 million worldwide in ticket sales. Gaga earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and nabbed Golden Globe, Grammy, and Oscar wins for her duet with Cooper in the movie’s song “Shallow.”

The chemistry between Gaga and Cooper both on- and offscreen was undeniable, sparking speculation that the two were secretly dating. The certified double-threat squashed the rumors on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February 2019. “People saw love, and guess what? That’s what we wanted you to see,” she said. “When you’re singing love songs that what you want people to feel... I’m an artist, and I guess we did a good job and fooled ya.”

House of Gucci

In 2021, Gaga starred in the biographical crime drama House of Gucci. She portrayed Patrizia Reggiani, who hired a hitman to kill her husband, Italian businessman Maurizio Gucci.

She received high praise for her performance and the Best Actress trophy at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. In her acceptance speech, Gaga said the award recognized the “strong Italian women” who raised her. “It was through them that I was able to create the heart and soul of this character, the one that she deserved,” she said. The actor was also earned a 2022 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama.

Joker: Folie à Deux

Gaga’s new movie is Joker: Folie à Deux, a musical psychological thriller that serves as the follow-up to the 2019 original. Joaquin Phoenix returned to the title role as Gaga played the DC Comics character Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, commonly known as Harley Quinn. Just before the sequel arrived in theaters in early October 2024, Gaga released a companion album titled Harlequin.

Fiancé Michael Polansky

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Lady Gaga got engaged to Michael Polansky in April 2024.

Lady Gaga met tech CEO Michael Polansky at a mutual friend’s birthday party in December 2019. Her mother, Cynthia, had previously crossed paths with him at a charity event and later told Gaga all about. In an interview with Vogue in September 2024, the singer revealed she went to the party to see him and “kept asking for him, and he finally came over to me, and we talked for three hours.” The pair soon started dating and made their relationship Instagram official in February 2020. Gaga and Polansky moved in together during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which time they grew closer.

In July 2024, ending months of speculation, the entertainer extraordinaire shared she and Polansky were engaged during a filmed conversation with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the Paris Olympics. Later on, Gaga said Polansky proposed to her on April 1 after the couple went rock climbing. She explained on The Graham Norton Show in September that she initially “thought he was joking” because he popped the question on April Fool’s Day. While Gaga has yet to reveal wedding plans, she told Jimmy Kimmel in October that she and Polansky “talk a lot about just going to a courthouse just the two of us and ordering Chinese food.”

Before Polansky, the singer had two other engagements. On Valentine’s Day 2015, Gaga became engaged to Chicago Fire actor Taylor Kinney. After five years together, in July 2016, it was reported that the couple had parted ways. A year later, in the summer of 2017, Gaga got engaged to her agent, Christian Carino. After the singer attended the Grammys without Carino in February 2019, a representative confirmed the engagement was off.

Bold Fashion

Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (5)

One of Lady Gaga’s most-discussed fashion choices is the meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

In addition to her music, Gaga is known for her bold and iconic fashion sense. In 2008, the singer made waves with her long bangs and Haus of Gaga origami dresses before catching the world’s attention at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with her six campy costume changes, including a red lacy number and matching fabric crown that completely covered her head.

Perhaps her most infamous look, however, is the meat dress she wore to the 2010 VMAs, which was made entirely of raw beef. In an interview on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Gaga explained she wore the meat dress in protest of the United States military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibited openly LGBTQ people from serving in the armed forces. The law was repealed in September 2011.

Although Gaga’s style has changed over the years, her looks and ever-changing hair color continue to turn heads. In 2016, she showed up to the Met Gala in a sparkly, metallic corset and no pants. Two years later, at the British premiere of A Star Is Born, Gaga stunned in a white gown fit for a Victorian queen, complete with a ruffle collar. Most recently, she wore a bright red dress with large puffy shoulders and Harley Quinn–inspired makeup on her press tour for Joker: Folie á Deux.

Net Worth

As of September 2024, Gaga has an estimated net worth of $300 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Quotes

  • I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.
  • The statement is that I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions.
  • There can be a hundred people in the room, and 99 don’t believe in you, but all you need is one.
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us!

Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (6)

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Lady Gaga’s ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Character Harley Quinn Had a “Profound Effect” on Her (2024)
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