Lady Gaga Reveals Surprising Reaction To 'Unhinged' 'Joker 2' Reviews

Lady Gaga is sharing her initial thoughts on the negative reviews for Joker: Folie à Deux, more than a year after the film failed to impress at the box office.

In her cover story for Rolling Stone published on Thursday (November 13), Gaga explained that she had to laugh at some of the "unhinged" reviews for the film, a sequel to 2019's Joker that saw the "Dead Dance" singer join returning star Joaquin Phoenix. While the first film was relatively well received, the 2024 sequel faced more criticism and harsher reactions, per People.

Gaga explained that while there was "a ton of negativity" surrounding the film, she was "feeling artistically rebellious at the time" and that reflected in her reaction to the reviews.

"I wasn't, like, unfazed. It's funny, I'm almost nervous to share my reaction," she said. "But the truth is, when it first started happening, I started laughing. Because it was just getting so unhinged."

However, the "Abracadabra" hitmaker, who recently earned seven nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards, added that the negative response to a project becomes more "painful" the longer it seems to go on because of how much effort she put into her role. Gaga played Lee Quinzel opposite Phoenix's Arthur Fleck in the film, which featured several musical numbers.

"When it takes a while for something to kind of dissipate, that can be a little bit more painful," she told Rolling Stone. "Only because I put a lot of myself into it."

Elsewhere in the interview, Gaga spoke about feeling "lucky to be alive" after an intense mental health struggle while filming her breakout movie role in A Star Is Born, while her fiancé Michael Polansky gave a hint about their upcoming nuptials.