A Star Is Born, the only movie anyone is seeing this Fall, tells the tale of Ally, an aspiring “ugly duckling” singer-songwriter who finds love mentorship in alcoholic country star played by Bradley Cooper. The film is being called “strikingly believable” (New Yorker) and a “total emotional knockout” (Variety). Recently, Gaga gave us some insight into the authenticity of her performance.
While promoting the film at the London premiere, Gaga chatted with Sky News about how Ally, who is judged and dismissed despite her talent because of her appearance, has been a surrogate for exploring and processing her own experiences in the music industry.
Shelving the layers of makeup, costumes and performance personas that she has defined herself by, for a more raw kind of storytelling “was a vulnerable experiences” she said. “It put me in the right place I needed to be. When my character talks about how ugly she feels — that was real. I’m so insecure.” Relatable as hell.
Gaga has been open about her struggles with eating disorders and mental health, and active in conversations about sexist body-shaming.
Gaga revealed that: “I was told when I was first starting out that I should get a nose job. But I didn’t because I wanted to be who I was.” She told them no: “I love my Italian nose.”
There were some differences between Gaga’s and Ally’s stories however:
“I really believed in myself when I started out pounding on doors to break down all of the barriers in the music industry, I really had courage.” She explained: “She doesn’t have that, she’s not brave and she’s not full of self-confidence.”
Cooper called Gaga’s performance one from a “deep, honest place,” adding “It’s a tribute to her character and how she makes people feel, and why she has so many millions of loyal fans is because they feel that she’s authentic.”
Gaga and Cooper’s A Star Is Born is the third version of a star is born made this century, and in just eight days we’ll get to see how they measure up to their counterpart couples: Judy Garland and James Mason (1974), Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson (1976).
