Don't expect Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn to be completely comic accurate, says Joker: Folie à Deux director: "We stripped that away"

Lady Gaga's take on Harley Quinn will be different to the character we know and love from DC Comics, says Joker: Folie à Deux director Todd Phillips. 

Gaga is playing Lee in the film, a version of Harley, as she stars opposite Joaquin Phoenix, who is returning as the Joker.

"The high voice, that accent, the gum-chewing and all that sort of sassy stuff that's in the comics, we stripped that away," Phillips told Variety. "We wanted her to fit into this world of Gotham that we created from the first movie."

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The first Joker movie is much more grounded than the Gotham of the comics, so it makes sense that Gaga's Lee wouldn't be quite as heightened as the Harley of the source material. 

"You know my version of Harley is mine, and it's very authentic to this movie and these characters," Gaga has previously revealed. "I've never done anything like I've done in this movie before, so it's all going to be completely brand new and really fun."

Along with Gaga and Phoenix, the movie also stars Catherine Keener, Brendan Gleeson, and Steve Coogan. While the movie is DC's next release, it's not arriving as part of Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, overseen by DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. It's instead an Elseworlds story, so it's not part of the DCU. 

Joker: Folie à Deux arrives in theaters October 4. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows arriving soon to keep up to date with everything else that's in store.