Lady Gaga Opens Up About Struggles Letting Go of Acting Roles: ‘You Develop a Bond with Characters’ (Exclusive).Linh

After ‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘House of Gucci,’ and now ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’ Lady Gaga says she’s kept her characters with her

Lady Gaga can’t stop falling in love — with the characters she plays on the big screen.

In writer-director Todd Phillips’ new sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, Gaga, 38, plays Arkham State Hospital patient Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (a.k.a. beloved DC Comics villainess Harley Quinn), who becomes obsessed enough with Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck (a.k.a. Joker) that the two share fanciful — musical! — expressions of their inner madness.

Asked whether she left her psychologically warped character behind after wrapping filming, the “Die With a Smile” singer tells PEOPLE, “I didn’t, really.”

To clarify, she adds, “I didn’t bring her home with me, for sure.” But between Lee, Ally in 2018’s A Star Is Born and the real-life Patrizia Reggiani in 2021’s House of Gucci, “you fall in love with the characters that you play,” she says. “I always have, anyway.”

Of A Star Is Born‘s Ally, Gaga told Variety upon the Bradley Cooper movie’s release, “I wonder how long she’ll stay. Or if she’ll be in there forever.”

In 2022, she told Screen Daily that she dressed as Ally and dyed her hair to match the character’s. For House of Gucci, she said at the time, she resolved to stay in character for over nine months: “It’s very important to me that when I’m on screen, people don’t feel like it’s me the whole time. I think that would be very distracting.”

So yes, “sometimes” Gaga has “had trouble leaving” characters behind, she tells PEOPLE. “But I’m in a new place.”

That new place includes an engagement earlier this year to businessman Michael Polansky and readying not one but two forthcoming albums: Folie à Deux’s companion album Harlequin (out Sept. 27) and a seventh studio album referred to as “LG7.”

“I’ve been in the music industry since I was a teenager. And I’ve been working in the film industry for the last 10 years or so,” says the Oscar winner. “And you know, I think that I just went through a lot.”

She adds, “I just feel a lot better now and it’s nice to be able to say that. I feel really grateful to be able to say that.”

Joker: Folie à Deux, costarring Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Leigh Gill, Zazie Beetz, Sharon Washington and Steve Coogan, is in theaters now.