Lady gaga and bradley cooper congratulations on a star is born. Thank you. Everybody's very excited about this movie
good
Bradley I wanted I wanted to start with you and ask
What you wanted to do for your first
Movie that you directed. You you were you were kind of keen on doing a love story
And and how did you arrive at this one? You know, I always knew I wanted to direct I've always grown up
making movies in my mind and so
Compositionally, there were a lot of things that were occurring. I would start to go to this class where music festival about six years ago
and I just loved the point of view of the stage and
it was just a series of events that occurred and then Clint Eastwood was gonna direct a version of this movie and then that that
didn't happen and
And I thought I was a little young at that point
You know
I was just summit and then I got older I went through American sniper and Elephant Man and and then I said
You know what?
I'm 40. time is the biggest currency now, and I thought you know what, you know
just stop
Saying you're gonna do it and actually do it and I had a point of view about a love story that I wanted to tell
through two musicians. And but it really wasn't until I met Stephanie that it that I knew that okay now I'm ready to
Strap on the oxygen tank go hand-in-hand with her and let's go up the hill. When did he first bring this to you?
I actually performed at a cancer fundraiser for Sean Parker
and I was singing La Vie en Rose that night and
Bradley was in the audience. I almost called you Jackson just now, haha
He was in the audience
and the next day he came over to my house to meet me and
It was really like instantaneous. As soon as I saw his eyes we had this instant connection and you know
We're both from the East Coast were both Italian, you know before I knew it
I was heating up some leftover pasta for him in a pan and we were eating together
And then he wanted to sing together
So I printed out the song he wanted to sing which is called midnight special and I was nervous, of course
I
had never
sat down really with an actor of his caliber before ever and
I started to play and he started to sing and I just stopped playing and I looked over at him and I said oh my
Gosh Bradley your voice! you have a voice you can sing
Oh my gosh. It comes from his gut it comes from the inside of him
you didn't the nectar of his being. you know it's so soulful and
Then he said she would film it?
So he took out his cell phone and he filmed us and we started to sync together. And before I knew it we were
Harmonizing and we were laughing
we were looking at each other and
I just I really truly knew in that moment that he's the only actor in the world that could play a rockstar and
I think it is a very very difficult role to play
If you don't do your homework and you you don't
understand the inner workings of the backstage area and the crew and you know in ears and monitors and and
You know instruments things like that
You're at a deficit
but he
He looked at everything. He wanted to know everything
And he was in the studio all the time with us and we were working on the soundtrack
He wrote music for himself for the soundtrack. I mean I watched him be a musician and
you know, I it's just a testament to him as a you know, consummate professional Bradley was there any
Nervousness? I can't imagine walking into Lady Gaga's house and saying let's sing together
Like was there any nervousness in singing the duets with one of the greatest singers in the world?
well
there should be, but the reason why there wasn't was because she was so present and kind and
Just disarmed me and and the greatest artists I've ever met in my life do that
Very same thing, you know Clint Eastwood
You're around him for two seconds and all of a sudden you feel like he's a guy who lives down the block
Same thing with Robert De Niro same thing with Meryl Streep
It's it there's just something about I don't know if when you've achieved that level of creativity and success.
the confidence as a human being. I'm not sure what it is, but she made me feel so comfortable and
And I knew going in that if we don't sing together, I'm just like an idiot or there's no chemistry
I wouldn't even want to ask her to go on this journey. So but it kind of just happened
Organically, I have to say yeah, like I had this idea in my mind
Maybe we would. I didn't know it would be ten minutes into meeting her.
it kind of happened when I walked in the living room and I saw your white piano and then we were outside and I'm like talking
maybe we should just try it and that's why I said listen
Do you want to just sing this song which she had never heard
Never. Didn't know and we taped it and it was we only sang it once and that was what I filmed
Just on my iPhone on the on the on the right on the piano. Do you still have that video? Sure do
And it was part of what I what I showed to Warner Brothers to get the movie. Oh wow. Yeah.
The audience for this will be interesting because a big part of the audience will know this story
You know they have seen it
it was it's been made three times before with Judy Garland after that Barbra Streisand way before that with with Jane, Janet Gaynor, and
Then other people will be coming and a lot of your audience especially will be coming to this cold
They don't know the story. So I want to ask what is the story of a star is born?
What is the movie about I mean the truth is it's for you to say and it's for everybody all the viewers
there's a lot of different things that we were grappling with and
investigating in this movie. Trauma,
What it is to have somebody at your side somebody who inspires you. what it is to be in a relationship
In an honest way what you know the true commitment, what that entails.
What it means to be in a world where you're successful, where what you do is deemed successful
how does that how does that affect you as a as a human being. All of these things were are things in the movie that
That that we wanted to tell and to investigate
But the truth is it's up. It's up to you now. The basic plot
For anyone who doesn't know is you played Jackson Maine, a legendary rock star who meets a young
beautiful woman who has this incredible raw talent. And you help her in her career and
she
Becomes very famous and he continues on a somewhat self-destructive path. Was there something that spoke to you,
About this story that you wanted to tell?
Oh. You personally what resonated?
All the things I just talked about
the thing. I knew I wasn't going to direct a movie until I had a point of view and
And movies have been healing to me because you identify with them. And the greatest thing is if you're identifying with somebody on a 30-foot
screen that's an incredible magic trick that a storyteller is able to do. As opposed to just
Admiring it. You actually are feeling something and connecting with it. So I wanted to create these very cinematic
Characters and music was a great platform for that.
But tell tell their story in a way that you as the viewer can completely identify with.
Constantly throughout the film, then hopefully at the end. You can either be healed, question it, investigate, grow.
That's what I wanted to do with the film and the the structure of the property itself lent itself to that
Almost every single person has told me they like the way I
Sounded but that they didn't like the way I look. I think you're beautiful.
But you know, it's funny you said that this young woman wants to be a singer, you know.
That isn't really our movie. Our movie is a 31 year old,
musician who hasn't made it.
She's not an ingenue and she sort of relegated herself to singing someone else's song in a drag bar.
A songwriter who's singing someone else's song when we meet her. And
That's very different
And he is somebody who is very successful. His fame is not dwindling. He's just aging as one does like a prizefighter
starting to get tinnitus happens to so many musicians, but he
His fame is not dwindling. He could still tour and make millions of dollars for the rest of his life
So it's definitely a different story in that way
Lady Gaga your character is ally
Tell me what spoke to you about
Ally?
why that character intrigued. you what intrigued me about Ally is that she is nothing like I was
when I started I mean when I
wanted to become a singer and decided that I was going to really hit the pavement and try to make it I
really believed in myself and I was banging down every door that I could and
Dragging my piano around New York City trying to get gigs and you know
Even after my first single came out on a record label, I was playing three shows a night
You know in different states every single day
This is not who she is at all. I don't sing my own songs
Why I just I just don't feel comfortable
I was I was intrigued by her her vulnerability
I was intrigued by the fact that this woman has given up on herself
She's depressed. She does not believe in in
her beauty
she doesn't see herself as beautiful and
She's been you know sort of jaded by her experience in the music industry being told
you know over and over again that she's not good enough. And and I
think people will be
Surprised at your acting ability in this. And the same like you are
Beholding a movie in the most, as if you've done it a million times before in the same way that Bradley, when you've seen it
Is a 'wow' moment at first and then it it
Both of you were seen, when you watch the movie very comfortable doing these sort of new things for both of you
But how much nervousness was there going into it for both of you? I
For me there, there was not nervousness because we really made a contract, you know together as friends when we first
Met and when we decided to do this that you know, he said, you know
you're an actress and I said you're a musician and we shook hands and you know when you have that exchange with Anik with a
Collaborator it makes for a very pure artistic experience
I've said this to him before, you know, I'm saying with a lot of different people
but sometimes you can be singing with someone and you feel like they're singing at you or they're still just
performing for the audience
And they're not singing with you and telling the story and I loved singing with him so much and and we did everything
Live so, you know
You know take after take it was fresh and new and I just I loved his voice
and I loved the way our voices sounded together and
You know, we found love through music
the one thing I you know
I knew the talent I knew the potential but I also knew that it wouldn't really happen
Unless there was a tremendous commitment that was made and the fact that it wasn't lost on me
She is a full life
You know a full career that has a lot of demands and for her to take the time that she took
To prepare and to commit to this project is it was a massive?
Undertaking and also a massive sacrifice in her whole other life that to me
As I said before time is the biggest currency the fact that she dedicated so much of her precious time to this project
is the reason why it is what it is, but that was a you know symptom of
Bradley's passion, you know when you are working with someone who's better than you, you know?
You want to rise to the occasion and I saw him giving it everything he had
you know wanting to know everything about the music industry wanting to know everything about the backstage wanting to know everything about
You know being a musician
I was I was flawed and writing the script and writing music and
directing and acting you know, I saw and had such a
Privileged experience to watch him that I I really I said to myself every day
You better bring it. Maybe you better leave every last drop of blood on the floor of that scene
How did it feel for you Bradley when you were because you did you saying everything live which is
Which is part of the power of the film. There's you're not seeing somebody lip seeing write songs up there
It's no it's essential because the music itself is story
It's not as if we break right you watch this thing together and the songs that you wrote fit. There's no
To the moment. How did it feel for you?
I think it was very early on when you first got up in front of 80,000 people
with Lady gaga to to sing
How did that feel for you to look out at that sea of people and you'd never done anything like that before?
I mean the the gift was yeah
The first time we went on stage was the week the week in between the weekends that Stephanie did
Coachella and
And and the first the first time was digging my grave a song that's on the soundtrack that will didn't wind up in the movie
and
That I really sort of cut my teeth there, which was wonderful
That allowed me then to because then we started to hop on to real stages, you know, just stealing a tour four minutes
But it was because I had that camaraderie on stage and that okay
It's gonna be okay, and she's looking at me like I'm a musician
You know, so when she's looking at me and believing I'm musician. Well, it must be a musician
Honestly, and she doesn't lie when she's acting at all. I mean, it's like it's if it's not there she's not gonna pretend it's there
So that was wonderful to just stare across as we're saying is I'm like, oh, yeah, we're actually and we're actually doing it
There's people this thing you're singing, you know, it was kind of thrilling. Yeah, it's pretty impressive the other the other thing that
Is really I noticed about this movie
Many many times in love stories and or romantic comedies any anything where you see two people fall in love?
You often note that if the the falling in love part rings false and often you just kind of go with it anyway
because it's a fun story in this I
can tell that you really took pains to make the falling in love between these two people very
Very believable and it's way more than someone saying I love you. There were just these little
Moments. Can you tell me a little bit? In fact, they don't say they love each other
Once right before she goes onstage and that's it. She never says it to him. It's because it's not in the dialogue
It's in the way. They look it's in the close-ups of people as they do things or say other things
Can you tell me a little bit about?
how you
conveyed that these two people were falling in love just that the techniques you used in the moments you use that really came down to
Script and structure and because I knew if you don't buy into these two people
Yeah, you're not gonna be able to go on this very treacherous journey
You know as it speeds up and starts to head down downhill. You just won't be on a board and
the idea rhythmically came out of I mean when I first moved to Hollywood and started to become friends with people who were very
successful
I realized that a night out with them was not a night out with me and my buddies in Philadelphia
Did the access to go places and the night just takes it so I always found that so thrilling
I still can recall nice hour
I'm like well
Then they go here and here so I really wanted that to be a major part of
Their interaction the night where she just he just picks her up and then they go on this night
Who knows where it's gonna end up and you often wind up at like pizza joints with a really famous person?
You're like, oh you do this, too
I mean
there's so many elements of that that that I didn't know if someone who hasn't been in that world knows that that that
Exists, so that was the basic structure
I wanted a night out, but it's hard to start a movie in like almost real time
You kind of have a real time experience with them. Yes one full night, you know, but in that I thought is really the
opportunity to have a 20-minute sort of intro to them where we can really just take moments because it's all about moments and
they both had to discover each other as
musicians true musicians musicians that can inspire each one of each other and also be attracted to each other and that there's chemistry
So those were the demands and we just I just plotted them out. You know, he first hears her sing
He loves her voice. They have that connection when she's close to him
HOW GOOD DOES GAGA LOOK OMFG
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He's kind of bewildered at that connection almost like huh wasn't expecting that
Then he goes backstage still interested in her, but it's not until they're in the parking lot
But before that she's like it recognizes who he is like well, that's kind of crazy
But then when she goes out to meet him for them to go on the night to the bar
she hears him sing this song and this dragon has completely moved and inspired in a way that she surprises her and
then she
Surprises him in the parking lot when she sings this song that she wrote he realizes she has a lot to say the very thing
He said to her in the bar, he will be witnessed. So those were the sort of
Landmarks that I wanted to hit in that opening and then but I had the beauty of doing it with her. So it was effortless
then it is when she's singing La Vie en Rose in the bar and have never met before but she lays she's laying back and
And you it's a close-up on you looking at him and that moment is really magic
and I think it's there's the then there's the build and those great moments together, but I
Was with it
Mmm from that moment just the look in your eyes when you kind of stopped performing for a second and you just saw him
There was the recognition and then there was something else but she recognized him before that if you look at the movie again
She notices him when she's she's clearing one of the lights. She looks down. Oh, it's funny
I kept wondering if she noticed that yeah, she's biggest rock star in the world. Mhm. She says I thought that was you
You
I
Can't wait to see the two of you answer these together so
these are this is called the kegel exercise and
you just
Because my name is Jessica anyway
It's just fill in the blank
I love it, and I will let
Lady Gaga ask you to fill in the blank and then Bradley you fill in the blank same questions and you can answer for each
Other if you want and you feel free to skip questions if you want to do it. Okay, nothing's back
skip
Close friends describe me as
kind
Close friends describe me as I mean, that's all it's a hard thing to answer
I don't know that you'd have to ask them only I know that I am
Jane we're very best. I'm gonna be very bad at this
I'm pretty transparent. I don't think only I for anything I mean this person she knows everything about me every single thing
so
yeah, so the answer is
there is no only I
The song that always makes me dance mmm
Thunder Road
Whispering steam right now. It's Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel
the movie I've seen the most times is
the Wizard of Oz
That's a tough one
There's a I can't I don't know which one passes the other one but I mean Unforgiven I've seen a hundred times
but the other one, oh man Once Upon a Time in the West
Shampoo life lessons, I've seen I love movies. Yeah, this is easy. I start every day by doing I
I like to take a moment for myself outside and to just look out into the world
Meditation
Last question when we're done here. I would really like to
Eight
Did you take your
Alright, thank you so much. Congratulations