working with waen was a total Breeze Lady Gaga and waen Phoenix are at the Venice International Film Festival for the highly anticipated Joker fol Adu the musician arriving in true Gaga Fashion on the red carpet ahead of the world premiere earlier in the day she joined haen and director Todd Phillips for a press conference Gaga was really um Stephanie or Stephanie I can't sorry Stephanie uh a funny moment between the co-stars hen making sure it was okay to use her legal name instead of her stage name while talking to reporters the actor revealed their vocal performances in the film were done live at the suggestion of the Grammy winner early on she was like oh we're going to sing live and uh I was like no we're not or you you you can sing live if you'd like let's give the people what they want but ultimately the actors did perform live which Phoenix said was the right choice for the musical psychological thriller so that felt really exciting I think created an energy that was was necessary Gaga said they worked really hard on how they sang revealing she had to change her approach to singing while portraying Harley Quinn for me it was a lot about uh kind of unlearning technique and uh forgetting how to breathe and allowing uh the song to completely come out of the character haen who plays the Joker Arthur Fleck previously said he had lost more than 50 lbs for the role as he wanted his character to look malnourished and thin in the original for the latest film he revealed transforming into the character once more was a little more difficult it was felt a bit uh more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing um which I didn't have last time it is safe but you're right I'm Now 49 as I probably shouldn't do this again the actor also praised the Born This Way singer for her own transformation Stephanie also lost a lot of weight I did yeah I did did I remember you we were first I met you and and and then we did some rehearsals and then you went away for like a month and then you came back and you lost a lot of weight and it was really impressive and seemed very difficult thank you Gaga says she wanted to be in this film after being deeply moved by hen's performance and God's Artistry in the first film sometimes when stories are told about people that are maybe misunderstood by Society the director gives you a chance the actor gives you a chance to really take a hard look at that world in a deeper way and I felt like when I watched the first film that I I got to understand and see something that I may have never seen before the 38-year-old says working with haen was unlike any other experience she's had with another actor working with waen was a total breathe and I uh I actually really enjoyed it he's incredibly loose and free and I think I learned very much that going on set with a preconceived notion of what we were going to do was kind of the wrong idea and I think we all really thrived in the moment and in the chaos of it all [Music] a [Music]