Lady Gaga Talks Candidly About Starring Opposite Bradley Cooper In ‘A Star Is Born,’ Admits Feeling ‘Insecure’
In a Los Angeles Times profile published today, singer Lady Gaga spoke about her experience starring in A Star Is Born with actor Bradley Cooper, reported E! News.
She spoke about how working across from Cooper was a struggle for her because she feels “insecure.” Gaga had acted prior to starring in Cooper’s film and had even won a Golden Globe for her part in FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel. However, Cooper, who directed and produced the film, wanted Gaga to be “completely open” and have “no artifice.” She commented that when she showed up for a screen test prior to the start of filming in 2016, she appeared with a full face of makeup and Cooper told her to take it off.
“It put me right in the place I needed to be, because when my character talks about how ugly she feels—that was real,” Gaga commented. “I’m so insecure.”
In the film, set to premiere on October 5, Gaga plays an aspiring singer named Ally while Cooper plays Jackson, a rock star with an addiction that puts his career at risk. Jackson finds Ally and takes her under his wing, falling in love with her along the way. However, his demons eventually surface and threaten their relationship.
In the article, Gaga talks about how she relates to the characters in the movie.
“It’s very lonely being a performer. There’s a certain loneliness that I feel, anyway—that I’m the only one that does what I do. So, it feels like no one understands. And the urge to use is because you’re searching for a way to quell the pain. When I first started to perform around the country doing nightclubs, there was stuff everywhere, but I had already partied when I was younger, so I didn’t dabble. I was able to avoid it because I did it when I was a kid.”
At the same time, the singer comments that there are aspects of Ally that she can’t relate to, such as Ally’s discouragement and willingness to give up on herself. Before Gaga’s first album, The Fame, dropped in 2008, she says she never once gave up.
“I was dragging my piano from dive bar to dive bar to play music. I was calling people, faking being my own manager to get gigs. I really believed in myself that I could do this and that I wasn’t going to stop until I made it.”
Gaga believes that her fans help her feel more secure about herself and lift her up when she’s feeling down.
“To be honest, I think what makes me feel beautiful is when I see happiness in my fans. When I see or hear from them that the music that I’ve made has changed their life in some way, that’s what makes me feel beautiful…And at the end of the day, I could be in a million movies and put out a million songs and everyone could say, ‘She was so beautiful,’ but that’s not really what I want. I want them to say, ‘I saw that movie and I cried my eyes out and I learned something about myself.'”
