Joaquin Phoenix & Lady Gaga Bring ‘Joker’ to the Venice Film Festival

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga hit the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday with “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

The stars opened up about the film and their transformations into the Joker and Harley Quinn  for the musical sequel.

Reflecting on playing Arthur Fleck aka the Joker a second time, Phoenix spoke about how losing weight was different this time.

“I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet... but this time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time."

And while he did it in a "safe" way, Phoenix added, “I’m now 49; I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me."

He noted that Gaga had “lost a lot of weight” for the film, and she shared, “We transformed into our characters over a period of time, and we continued to hone in [on] every kind of detail.”

Speaking of the dance rehearsals, she added, “But I would say preparing the waltz that is in the film was really, really special. We rehearsed for a few months. It is interesting. It is a waltz that falls apart and is an expression of this very strange love between the two of them. [Phoenix] did great on set. We fed him blueberries when he was really hungry."

Joaquin insisted this time around he didn’t want to talk so much about his weight loss.

"I know I was responsible last time for talking about it quite a bit, because it's difficult to do, so it becomes your obsession because you’re working through and trying to get to a certain weight,” he explained, adding, "So then you can't help but talk about it, and then it just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost.”

The Oscar winner said, “By the end of that run, I was so sick of myself and angry at myself for making such a thing of it, because you just do what you're f**king supposed to do... So this time, I was like, 'I’m not going to do that.'”

As for the singing, Joaquin said, “Early on she was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to sing live,’ and I was like, ‘No, we’re not… You can sing live if you would like.’ And ultimately we did it, and it was really the only way. Not only did we sing live, every part of the recording was live… We were working with a pianist.”

Gaga added, “I think the way we approached music in this film was very special and extremely nuanced. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is actually a musical in a lot of ways. It is very different. The way that music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and just the dialogue was not enough.”

The star said of the singing, “We worked really hard on the way that we sang. For me, it was a lot about kind of unlearning technique and forgetting how to breathe and allowing the song to completely come out of the character.”

Gaga also opened up about her love for music and film, saying, “I think I started making music when I was really little because I just had something to say and I was trying to figure out how to do that. One of the reasons that I love music and movies so much is the stories that you get to tell and the way you get to express something to the world that will hopefully help make people feel good about life and give them a moment to escape into another world, to fall into somebody else’s story.”

Later, the singer wowed as she walked the red carpet in a Christian Dior couture gown with a hat with a lace mask. Gaga made it a date night, as she posed alongside her fiancé Michael Polansky.

In the film, Phoenix is back as Arthur Fleck, who is now institutionalized at Arkham Asylum after killing Murray Franklin on live TV.

As he awaits trial — and struggles with his identity — he meets and falls in love with Gaga’s Harleen Quinzel aka Harley Quinn.

Todd Phillips, who directed “The Joker,” is the filmmaker behind the sequel, which also stars Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, Harry Lawtey and Zazie Beetz.