J*ker Director explains Gaga’s cut kiss scene

[MOT 2,592]

I'm determined to play detective on this. I'm just not sure if I'm playing Poirot or Clouseau.

The EW article says that Phillips recalls Gaga improvizing the kiss, but their actual quote from him doesn't include those words. If he did use those words, why aren't they quoting them ? I think maybe they have just chosen to SPIN his quoted words as meaning that she improvized.

When he says that Gaga 'did this thing', well that's disparaging certainly, but what flavour of disparaging is it ? Is he being disparaging because she improvized and he didn't like it, or is he being disparaging because he thought she did it badly ? Looking at the footage, I don't think it was improvized. I can't see the woman saying anything to Gaga, but after Gaga kisses her and speaks, the woman looks to me as if she's showing a reaction to what Gaga said, i.e. acting on cue.

I might as well get this off my chest. I think there is a strong possibility that Phillips did not rate Gaga's work in this movie and that is why her role has been reduced and they had all those rewrites. He has done another interview recently where he went out of his way to praise Steve Coogan and Brendan Gleeson. Talking abot Coogan's scene with Phoenix he says 'It's always interesting to me to put someone like Joaquin toe-to-toe essentially, literally with another actor, and you really want to put him across somebody great, you know'. He has also spoken about Joaquin being generous to Gaga in his notes on acting.   

[Jase 13,042]

God I'd LOVE to know what she thinks about the final product and this massive backlash. I don't suppose we'll ever know unfortunately, but man I'd love to pick her brain about it all.

[Naak Le Vaar 1,169]

All her work, time, and talent wasted away. Gaga deserves better

[Monet 803]

Seriously, you guys are behaving similar to the people on Gaga's comments on insta, acting like Todd is trying to throw Gaga under the bus or something   relax

[Anderson123 35,203]

I mean they film a lot of material and not everything stays for obvious reasons. That kiss scene was the least of my concerns. They should've kept the elevator with full make up on, I was excited to see the stairs performance (with Joker) and the end with the police and full make up on which made me think we'd see her go completely crazy.

[chromaticainmyhead 6,311]

The more I read about Philips or Phoenix and see how they interact with Gaga the more I get the feeling they really weren't into her from the start. It's like Philips and Phoenix were creatively isolating and excluding her a lot from their process. Just the interview with Variety where they said that Philips let Phoenix go through the script and scrap scenes shortly before they shoot it and just go with what Phoenix liked but not a single word mentioned about how Gaga also had the opportunity to do so. I am jumping to conclusions now but my gut tells me something is off about how Gaga was treated on this project. And maybe Philips really didn't want her but was pressured from production to have a big name tied to it, which is perfectly fine. In fact I feel like Philips didn't want to do this movie in the first place but was pressured to make a sequel just bc of money.

The matter of fact that most of her scenes were edited out and it feels like she's only appearing when it's about singing speakes volumes... almost like a commentary by the director who doesn't enjoy this at all

[LateToCult 39,588]

F*ck Todd. How are you gonna throw her under the bus like that? She’s promoted this film the most. Definitely more than Tweedledee and Tweedledum. 

[StarstruckIllusion 49,012]

3 hours ago, Cortezz said:

Todd didn’t say it was improvised or without consent. Discussing Film Twitter account made that up.

This is what he actually said:

 

"It had dialogue in it, and, all of a sudden, I wanted it to be more of a music and vibe moment," Phillips tells Entertainment Weekly. "For that moment to have played, it needed dialogue behind it. Meaning, the woman said something, and then Gaga stopped and did this thing, and it just kind of got in the way of the moment."

 

https://ew.com/joker-folie-a-deux-lady-Gaga-kissing-woman-cut-scene-8721852?taid=6703dc47ac9dcd0001e0d102&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+New+Content+(Feed)&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Thanks so much for this context. I dont think he really intended to throw Gaga under the bus after all, it might be just bad framing from the twitter account

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,321]

as if we weren’t more interested in the elevator shot and the court staircase that they cut altogether and were used for promo and posters without a sliver of shame.

I get the elevator because it would have been too evil to portray it looked like she was proud of scr*wing Arthur over. I get that one. but the staircase would have been cool if they edited it quickly right before the explosion when they kick their legs. I would have made a better movie wbk. lol.

[Reez 418]

God it's so awful when someone twists your words and whole internet goes with it and bashes you. Todd obviously didn't mean do discredit Gaga in his explanation. This is a proper lesson that we should all be more careful about what we read and to always check our sources

Edited October 7 by Reez

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,321]

38 minutes ago, LateToCult said:

F*ck Todd. How are you gonna throw her under the bus like that? She’s promoted this film the most. Definitely more than Tweedledee and Tweedledum. 

this tbh. I don’t even care if it was intentional, it can definitely work as coy move to distance himself from the pit he dragged all of them into. I am not giving this guy no passes, not right now. people are definitely gonna imagine her as this extravagant improvisor that disrupted the flow. and we all know she’s committed.

[chromaticainmyhead 6,311]

7 hours ago, 4BLAiNE said:

Just want to clarify, very quickly, before this thread gets out of hand fast. As an actor, I can assure you this moment was not improvised by Gaga. There is no way any set operates on a ground where an actor can kiss another without it being planned and agreed upon beforehand.

We can be upset that the scene was cut, but he’s saying that the decision to cut it was made because (for them) the fact it was a dialogue moment, it clashed against the flow of what they wanted.

Not saying I agree with the decision - just trying to explain this isn’t Todd saying “I didn’t like what Gaga improvised”. There is also no way one can interpret that he’s in any way blaming Gaga’s performance either.

As an actor - you learn quickly that so much is cut due to pacing / stylistic choices and not because of you. 
 

Very, very, VERY little is ever ‘improvised’ on professional film sets the way most believe it is. Even the stuff you’ve been told was improvised mostly wasn’t in the way you think it was. 

How would you then explain that Joaquin Phoenix got to scrap scenes and rewrite them in their trailer by themselves shortly before shooting them? 

[Schwerk 6,976]

I hope there's a lot of people that aren't obsessing over social media that will give this movie a chance. 

I would love for Gaga to work with a female director next time, just for a change. An indy project would be nice, maybe even be a supporting role, but something she can really sink her teeth into. Comedy would work to cause she nailed that in HOG.

[Robert 244]

Some of you should be more respectful. Saying you hate Todd Philips, that he’s stupid and other insults..these are not nice things to say. You're acting exactly like those haters in the comments on Gaga's Instagram. This fanbase can be so toxic sometimes

[SashaxBzns 498]

Coming from my movie editing perspective, Todd is entitled to changing whatever he wants, at the end of the day it's his name on the billboard, it's him who will have to stand by the decisions made. 

 

He doesn't have to include a scene because Lady Gaga's fans though it looked cool. If it broke the pacing he can remove it, it's his movie