If you saw the just-released first trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux, you already know that the titular Batman baddie terrifyingly embodied by Joaquin Phoenix has truly found his black heart’s true love in his infamous henchwoman Harley Quinn, played this time around by Lady Gaga.
And while Phoenix took home the best actor award at the 2020 Oscars for his first go-round in the smeared red lipstick, a newly resurfaced clip from 2010 proves that there was a time when Joaquin had no idea who Mother Monster was.
The chat between Miley Cyrus and Phoenix shared by the Miley fan account @MileyCyrusBz finds the Hannah Montana star giving her guest a grilling about the singer whose career was already in overdrive thanks to her 2008 breakthrough album, The Fame. After explaining to Phoenix that she’s a “singer-slash-actress” the then-18-year-old answered his question about what kind of dancing she does by saying it’s “like Lady Gaga.”
“Oh Lady Gaga dance?” Phoenix responds quizically. “You know who Lady Gaga is?” Cyrus asks, sensing the answer already. “Very well,” Phoenix tells her, adding erroneously, “She has the song ‘Everybody Goes Up.’ She also does the one ‘Two Lashes at a Time.’”
“No,” Miley corrects her elder, busting into some hand dancing to “Bad Romance,” which Phoenix attempts to copy for a second before admitting “I don’t know that song.”
According to Uproxx, the clip is from the video “MILEY CYRUS TEACHES JOAQUIN PHOENIX & LIV TYLER How to Vote for TWLOHA and Suicide Prevention,” which was uploaded at the time to the YouTube account for the mental health non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms.
Phoenix, of course, is now well-acquainted with Gaga, who will join him on the big screen in the Joker sequel that opens on Oct. 4.
Check out the clip below.