The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star wanted the 'Born This Way' hitmaker to be 'completely open' during her screen test.
- Aug 31, 2018
AceShowbiz - Bradley Cooper helped Lady GaGa nail her audition for his film A Star Is Born by removing her make-up.
The Guardians of the Galaxy star wanted the Born This Way hitmaker to be "completely open" during her screen test and then helped her get into character by stripping down her look.
"It put me right in the place I needed to be, because when my character talks about how ugly she feels - that was real," she tells the Los Angeles Times. "I'm so insecure. I like to preach, but I don't always practice what I preach".
After landing the role, Gaga had to leave her stage persona in her trailer to play down-and-out singer Ally in Bradley's new adaptation of the classic film.
"The truth is, when we meet Ally, she's given up on herself," she says. "And that's very different from me. I just wasn't overwhelmed by the odds. The truth is, if we were not sitting here today and I hadn't sold as many records as I have, I'd still be in a bar somewhere playing the piano and singing. It's just who I want to be".
Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, prepared for the film role for months and took acting lessons with drama teacher Susan Batson to hone her craft, but she struggled on the first day of filming after Bradley recited an unscripted line to try to help her relax, which prompted her to recite one of her own lines repeatedly.
"Finally, he said, 'Are you OK?' And then I started crying," she continues. "Then I got that out of the way and then we did the scene. I had to let go of the words".
"Her learning curve was insane, just from the first day to the second day," Cooper adds. "Everybody already knows that she's got a God-given talent as a singer, and she was able to utilise that plutonium to act. If this is something she wants to pursue, I will just have been lucky to have been part of her story as an actress".
