Harry Lawtey is transferring from Pierpoint to the Gotham City District Attorney's office. Known for playing loveable dumbass Robert Spearing on HBO's Industry, Lawtey will next be taking on the role of iconic Batman villain Harvey Dent—a.k.a. Two-Face—in Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie À Deux.
The casting was revealed in a new promo for the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-led musical, in which a pre-acid burned Dent is listed on a news broadcast as "Asst. D.A." "Arthur Fleck is a monster who knew exactly what he was doing," Lawtey's Dent says during a televised press conference. "His depraved acts of violence led to riots by his followers, and they are still willing to commit acts of violence in his name."
Put on a happy face. Joker: Folie à Deux - only in theaters and @imax, October 4. #JokerMovie #FilmedForIMAX pic.twitter.com/CqDld31gVg
— Joker Movie (@jokermovie) September 3, 2024
Lawtey has big shoes to fill. In the comics, the former D.A.'s face becomes deformed when mob boss Sal Maroni throws acid on him. In past franchises, the character has been played by Tommy Lee Jones (1995's Batman Forever) and Aaron Eckhart (2008's The Dark Knight), not to mention the many actors like Billy Dee Williams, Misha Collins, and Diedrich Bader who've voiced him in animated series and video games over the years.
In another short teaser released yesterday, we get a little more insight into exactly what type of monster Arthur Fleck is—and who encouraged him to become that way. We see the Joker laughing maniacally in a number of different situations, before chillingly pulling himself together and putting on a straight face. "You're Joker," Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn says in a seductive voiceover.
He's Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux - only in theaters and @imax, October 4. #JokerMovie #FilmedForIMAX pic.twitter.com/8icpvpPi2M
— Joker Movie (@jokermovie) September 2, 2024
In today's teaser, we also see the beginning of that same conversation. "You can do anything you want," Gaga says after tossing a trash can through a window "in his name." Anything including singing, which we finally see him do in a new featurette titled "The Music Within" for Warner Bros. "We started talking about music very early on," Phoenix says in the clip. "We wanted it to feel dirty in a way that people don't typically see." The songs were apparently all performed live "in ways that maybe weren't the most beautiful renditions of the song," which the actor found "very exciting."
This is a marked change from multiple un-melodic past teasers for the film, which really demonstrated that Phillips apparently "struggles with the idea of labeling Joker: Folie À Deux a musical," according to an interview with Variety. "Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue… It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead," the director elaborated. At least the $200 million jukebox musical headlines weren't a total Two-Faced lie.
Joker: Folie À Deux opens October 4 in theaters.
