by Giovana Gelhoren
Entertainment Writer
Back in 2018, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga made viewers believe in love, sing and unapologetically sob when watching their Oscar-winning version of A Star Is Born. And while the palpable chemistry between Cooper and Gaga was evident to any viewer, it turns out the “Bad Romance” singer was not the first A-list contender for the role.
Recently opening up about the casting process in an interview with SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Maestro star Cooper name-dropped two major singers he, who both starred in and directed the movie, considered for the role: Beyoncé and Adele.
“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember,” Cooper detailed, per People. And while we believe him, we can hardly imagine the rapper doing that. “I’m not kidding,” he added. “And I was freaking [out].”
“I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her,” the actor continued. “It was crazy.”
As it turns out, Queen B was the movie’s protagonist for quite a while. “She was incredible and so was he, and we developed it for like a year together,” he remembered. “I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time. Then that fell through.”
As for his attempt to co-star with Adele, however, their exchange was significantly shorter. According to Cooper, he extended the invitation to the “Rolling in the Deep” singer and she texted him back once saying that she was “busy.” Fair enough!
With two leading ladies out of the project, Cooper resumed his search for his next muse. Then, he attended a benefit concert and heard Gaga sing.
“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?’” Cooper remembered. “And then I asked to meet her.”
Luckily for him, his first impression really paid off. Talking about Gaga’s talent after filming during Variety‘s “Directors on Directors” series, for example, Cooper showed just how floored he was by her acting chops.
“It seemed simple but I thought it was a tall order when my character brings [Ally] onstage for the first time,” Cooper described a scene in the movie, per Entertainment Tonight. “I truly believed that that person had never been on a stage before.”
“And I remember thinking, ‘How is she pulling this off?’” Cooper said. “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.” Looks like he knows talent when he sees it!
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