This 2010 Throwback Miley Cyrus Video Bizarrely Set The Stage For Joker 2

Lady Gaga’s starring role in the Joker sequel may never have happened if it wasn’t for... Miley Cyrus. Yes, really. After the Joker: Folie a Deux trailer premiered on April 9, a 2010 video went viral on social media, proving that Cyrus introduced Joaquin Phoenix to his future Joker 2 co-star Gaga.

The resurfaced clip stems from a promotional video Cyrus and Phoenix made for To Write Love On Her Arms, which raises awareness for suicide prevention efforts. In the video, the then-18-year-old Cyrus teaches Phoenix how to vote for an online initiative. But their convo quickly turns to Cyrus, as Phoenix asks, “What do you do again?” (Someone didn’t watch Hannah Montana.)

She describes herself as a “singer-slash-actress” who tours and dances “sometimes,” comparing her dance moves to Lady Gaga. However, the reference is lost on Phoenix, who pretends to know who Gaga is by shouting out the songs “Everybody Goes Up” and “Two Lashes At A Time,” which are not songs by any famous artist, let alone Gaga.

Cyrus quickly corrects him by singing the chorus of Gaga’s 2009 hit “Bad Romance” and doing some of the choreography in her chair, causing Phoenix to admit he didn’t know who Gaga was. “That’s next,” she told him, adding that she would also teach him about Facebook, MySpace, and even her own fan club, Mileyworld. “You’ve got a lot to do,” she said.

Almost 10 years later, Phoenix portrayed the titular role in 2019’s Joker. While the film was divisive among viewers, it was a critical and commercial hit, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie in box office history and winning Phoenix the Oscar for Best Actor.

The success led director Todd Phillips to announce a sequel in 2022, which will be a musical, with Gaga joining Phoenix as the Joker’s lover Harley Quinn. Speaking at CinemaCon on April 9, Phillips said he cast Gaga in the role “because she’s magic,” recalling that he was a producer on her first feature film, A Star Is Born, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

“That was the first time I really met her and got to watch her work,” he said. “As we were writing this script, Scott [Silver], who I wrote it with, kept going back to her.”