Ruben, a grocer, was taking a break Sunday, March 26, when he noticed a crowd outside the New York County Supreme Court. Demonstrators lined the courthouse steps, jeering and waving homemade signs. Police and news vans filled the streets, and onlookers stood behind the barriers and took photos. “I thought they were going to arrest Donald Trump,” Ruben told Vulture. When he found the crowd had gathered for a film shoot for Joker: Folie à Deux and not for the impeachment of a former president, he was overwhelmed. “I’m not a fan of Gaga,” he explained. Of all the viewers Vulture spoke to during the day of filming, Ruben was the only one who preferred witnessing Trump’s arrest over seeing Lady Gaga.
The set looked surreal, with Gotham news vans and extras shouting “lock up that Joker!” replacing very real media exposure from just a few days, drawing a crowd of nearly a hundred viewers at its peak.
Two locals, who asked not to be named, said they saw some protesters at the previous day’s filming, but weren’t sure if they were Trump voters or extras from the DC Universe. “It’s a New York moment: a real protest alongside a fake protest for a film. We didn’t know why the cops were here,” said one.
By now, Gaga fans knew exactly what they were looking for. Two tourists, Shoval and Enzo, linked up on Twitter Saturday night after leaked photos of Gaga as Harley Quinn on set. They made a plan to meet at 7am to stake out Sunday’s shoot. Enzo described it as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. And they already had their first celebrity sighting of the morning when they spotted Joaquin Phoenix getting out of a car and “smoking a cigarette” on the way to the trailer. “It’s an overall fun experience whether Gaga or non-Gaga,” Enzo concluded.
A group of Fashion Institute of Technology students were more confident about their chances of discovering Gaga. One of them, Gigi, had visited the set the day before. By randomly knocking on trailer doors, she managed to get in touch with a stylist, who told her the singer would be back on Sunday. So Gigi returned with her friends Olympia and Cassie in tow: “We listened [Lady Gaga] all the way here.”
“I wouldn’t say we’re ardent fans [of Joker]’ Cassie explained, ‘but we like Gaga.’
Despite the abundance of both real-life New York City cops and Gotham “officers” on set, one little monster reportedly got a little too close to their target. Emily told Vulture that she snuck onto set on Saturday by pretending to be an extra. “I climbed that pillar up there,” she claimed, pointing to a courthouse pillar, “and my stupid ass grabbed Lady Gaga by the shoulders.” During the next take, Emily said she apologized to the star, from which she claimed was “really nice about it.”
“My whole goal was to get her to sign my chest and then I would get her tattooed if she did. But I’ve also come way too far at the moment.” She said after being removed from the set, she decided to return to the crime scene the next day disguised in a wig and sunglasses.
Photo: Amy Zimmerman
Other actual background actors echoed Gaga’s praise, saying that she came across as both friendly and professional while filming. Two extras, Dagmara and Ari Juliet, who were on screen in the audience on Saturday, agreed that she was a “star.” “She was so focused,” Dagmara recalls. “As she walked down the stairs, you felt like you were in the zone. She wasn’t paying any more attention to anyone.”
When filming resumed after lunch on Sunday, viewers finally got a chance to see Gaga perform. By this point the crowd had grown from a few fans to well over fifty gathered across the street from the courthouse. They watched with bated breath as Lady Gaga stomped up the steps. In the scene, a staged protester verbally abuses Harley Quinn, who responds by pulling her into an aggressive kiss. When Gaga went for the kiss for the first time, the audience gasped audibly.
“I didn’t expect her to kiss a lady on screen,” the Tourist Shoval told Vulture. “She’s a fucking icon! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”