Six years after the debut of his film A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper recalls freaking out at Beyoncé’s house right before production began.
During a recent interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Cooper, who starred and directed A Star Is Born, revealed he met with Beyoncé and Jay-Z to discuss the former Destiny’s Child bandmate playing the role of Ally, an aspiring singer in the film.
“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember,” Bradley Cooper explained. “I’m not kidding. And I was freaking [out].”
“I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her. It was crazy. She was incredible and so was he, and we developed it for like a year together. I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time.”
However, Cooper shared that the deal fell through. After speaking to Beyoncé, Cooper stated he thought Adele could take on the role. But she texted him back and said she was “busy.”
Not long after getting rejected by Adele, Bradley Cooper said after hearing Lady Gaga sing at a benefit concert, he knew she was going to be the film’s lead. “It just blew the doors off of the whole place, and it was in that moment where it was like, ‘That’s it. What was I even thinking?’ And then I asked to meet her.”
Lady Gaga ended up signing on to the film, which became a huge success. It. earned eight nominations at the 91st Academy Awards and won the award for Best Original Song for Shallow.
Bradley Cooper Once Recalled the Moment When Lady Gaga ‘Blew’ His Mind With Her Talent
In 2021, Bradley Cooper spoke to Variety about Lady Gaga and revealed the moment the pop icon blew his mind.
“It seemed simple but I thought it was a tall order,” Cooper explained. “When my character brings [Ally] onstage for the first time. I truly believed that that person had never been on a stage before.”
Bradley Cooper went on to recall his exact thoughts at the moment. “I remember thinking, ‘How is she pulling this off?’ that I actually believe on every level — as the director, as the character — that this person has never been in front of 20,000 people before. That was really kind of mind-blowing.”
Ridley Scott, who was in the interview as well. also praised Lady Gaga for her talent in House of Gucci. “That was the scene in the schoolyard. Jack Huston turns up in his Porsche to inform her that [Maurizio] is proposing divorce.”
“And she lost it so well and so real that I felt it had to be reflective of something that had happened to her, because it definitely hurt her. And from that moment I was watching her, I felt, ‘My God, she just owns it.’”