How Lady Gaga Imagined Harley Quinn as a Theater Kid for ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’: She ‘Created This Backstory’ About Lee Being ‘Really Into Musical Theater’

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Joker: Folie à Deux” now playing in theaters.

As costume designer Arianne Phillips was conceiving ideas for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” one character she got to spend considerable time on was Lady Gaga’s Lee Quinzel.

In the film, Gaga plays Lee, an inmate in Gotham City’s Arkham State Hospital. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) catches her eye. The two instantly connect. Her eyes light up, and so do his.

“Camp Lee” was where Phillips, director Todd Phillips and Lady Gaga — who Arianne Phillips refers to as “Stefani, Gaga’s birth name — workshopped how to present Lee. Speaking with Variety, Phillips says, “It was the chicken or the egg. Do you start at the beginning where we meet Lee in Arkham, or at the end, when we see her in her most Harley-realized state?”

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However, the collaboration also tapped into something deeper, Gaga had created a backstory for Lee: she loved musical theater. Once that came up, that unleashed a world of possibility for Lee’s costumes — right down to her shoes.

Here, Phillips discusses crafting Lee’s costume arc and how the diamond pattern and Harley’s red, black and white palettes were woven into her creations.

The first time audiences meet Lee is in the B ward at Arkham. She’s in hospital sweats, a white t-shirt and that cardigan. What did you want to say?

She’s in B Ward which is minimum security. Todd shared this incredible documentary, ”Titicut Follies” about this very oppressive and dilapidated criminal mental institution. But, it was a very inspiring piece of research. I had also done similar research for “Girl Interrupted” and I loved the mix of hospital issues and pieces that people have from their closet.

So, I had this idea that Lee was a reflection of what was happening at the time when New York City was at its lowest place. Gotham is a dark, gritty, dangerous place and the art wave and punk movement was emerging. So I wanted her to have hospital-issue pants, almost like a scrub, a men’s tank, but you could feel the femininity of her bra underneath. I wanted her to have a big cozy sweater for the volume to feel big enough that she could wrap herself in it. I thought she would either have thrifted it, or it could have been her father’s – we know her father and we find out she isn’t exactly how she presents in the beginning. The sweater was inspired by 1960s men’s designs. We made it from a mohair and angora mix. Stefani was great about wanting to infuse aspects of Harley Quinn, the character, so I leaned into the diamond pattern. There are a lot of diamond patterns in her costumes.

When we first see her, we see how Sarah Tanno (Gaga’s makeup artist) strips down her makeup and how Freddie (Frederic Aspiras, Gaga’s hair stylist) gives her hair this greasy texture. I thought a soft, warm, cozy sweater would be lit beautifully by our DP Lawrence Sher. And she’s beautifully backlit with this halo light that gives her a softness and femininity.

When she goes to the courtroom to support Arthurs, how did you want her costumes to evolve?

Stefani and I talked a lot about silhouettes in the early fittings. I leaned into the Biba girl — late ‘60s, ‘70s and Ossie Clark 1940s shapes, the very heightened femininity. It was a contrast to this sycophant, obsessed fan character and emotionally stunted woman; twisting the over-feminized silhouette, and cutting it with the hair and makeup that gave her this unstable edge.

I figured she had these Sunday church dresses from when she was a teenager, and they harkened more to the late 1960s and 1970s than the 1980s. Those dresses change over the courtroom. They start very floral-based. You see her in a baby blue floral dress with white tights that have a diamond pattern.

Stefani created this backstory that Lee was really into musical theater as a kid. At Arkham, we had her in ballet slippers. We made them really dirty to show her vulnerability and femininity.

All the shoes she wore were sourced from different dance shops in New York. In one scene she wears Tango or dance heels that she would have had, giving her that bravado. It was so smart of Stefani — because she’s singing and dancing in this movie — that was really part of who she was as a kid.

By the time we get to the fantasy in the courtroom, and she smears blood on her face, she’s wearing a dark ox blood baby doll dress that we made. At the very end of the sequence, you see her with the oversized white collar harkening to maybe her version of a female clown. That was a vintage dress that we loved because it was the antithesis of the first floral dress.

What about the last courtroom costume, when she’s fully realized with the red, black and white outfit?

We tried a lot of things in terms of what this fully realized Harley would be. It was helpful to work with Freddie and Sarah to develop this character together. My idea was that the black and white corset was something that she ripped out of perhaps a proper costume, like an 18th-century dress. We made it out of muslin which is never what you use on the outside of a costume because the texture is unfinished and ragged on the edge. My tailor Joanne Mills made the jacket from red silk wool that feels very like a costume. And that has this pleated tuile on the forearm – and the story was that it was a piece of costume that she found in a thrift store and cobbled it together. For the jacket, we used this technique where you could pleat in the diamond pattern.

She has this very short leather mini skirt with giant zippers on either side, which is very punky, something that maybe you’d wear in the Bowery or CBGBs. And you see the diamond pattern tights again, this time in black. She’s wearing the dance shoes again.

Her coat was made from upholstery fabric with a red lining. That palette of red, black and white was Stefani honoring the comic in terms of the colors. I think it was in tandem with what Mark Bridges created with the initial Joker suit, essentially, and rooting that in a reality as a clown costume and I felt that I needed to root Harley’s costume in a reality as well – this punky, scrappy girl.

The Harley and Joker Show costumes reminded me of the Sonny and Cher show. Was that the inspiration behind that?

It was scripted that she was wearing a Bob Mackie-like outfit. Looking at the set design and lighting, I leaned into color and for her costume. Cher was a huge inspiration. I wanted to avoid an overly beaded outfit because when we think about Mackie, we think of this embellishment, which I love, but I also wanted it to have a sassy ability and movement. I wanted it to feel youthful. Keeping with the baby doll shape, it had this wonderful double bell of the swingy halter top. The very long bell bottoms were exaggerated, and there was some embellishment with the beading.

I wanted them to feel very larger than life and tall, so we put her in these rainbow sparkle heels so that she would be very tall. Again, Sarah did that beautiful makeup, and we start to see her turn into Harley.

Arthur’s costume also was a new Joker suit. It was more heightened and the color was more intense, a brighter and stronger red.

What about their wedding outfit ideas?

I went with the ’60s and ’70s silhouette, rather than making it a cliche long dress, giving her a mini dress, in the same way that her dresses were in court. Joanne Mills made that dress. All the top stitching is in diamond patterns and in theme with Harley, it’s very subtle since it’s white, but we tried to infuse as much of that concept as possible.

Arthur is in his Joker suit, but it’s white. Gary Puddles is in his Members Only jacket, it’s the same silhouette he wore in court, but it is white.

This interview has been edited and condensed.