Madness in her method: Did Lady Gaga really stay in character for 18 months?
AStar Is Born was both a blessing and a curse for Lady Gaga. A blessing because it put her at the centre of a commercially successful, Oscar-nominated film, thereby rocketing her to the top of a profession of which she had very little experience. A curse, too, because she was essentially just playing herself; a singer who went from performing in drag bars to commanding huge stages in very little time. Quick, without looking, tell me the name of the character Lady Gaga played in A Star Is Born. You can’t, can you? You’ve always just called her Lady Gaga.
This means that she ultimately had two options after A Star Is Born. She could abandon her movie career in the knowledge that she had blurred the line between character and performer more successfully than any actor working today, or she could find another role. A role not so heavily steeped in her own biography. A role that would finally prove to the world that she was an actor of the highest calibre.
You already know by now that Lady Gaga chose the second option, since she has appeared in almost every scrap of promotional material that exists for Ridley Scott’s forthcoming House of Gucci. But, nevertheless, she still has to demonstrate that A Star Is Born was not a fluke. And, as an interview with Vogue reveals, she is doing that by proving that she is the actoriest actor who ever actored. There is method, and then there is a vast chasm, and then there is what she put herself through for House of Gucci.
For reference, in House of Gucci, she plays Patrizia Reggiani; a real-life socialite of unimaginable wealth who married the heir to the Gucci fashion house then, after he divorced her, served 18 years in prison for hiring a hitman to murder him. The role was previously mooted to be played by Angelina Jolie, Penélope Cruz and Margot Robbie. Just by turning up for work on a job like this, Lady Gaga basically guaranteed herself an Oscar nomination. But clear
ly that wasn’t enough. Gaga explained to Vogue: “I lived as her [Reggiani] for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that. Off camera, [too]. I never broke. I stayed with her.” Additionally, her accent training was so vigorous that you might be able to hear subtle variations depending on which Italian town the character is in.
There’s more, too. Despite having no indication that Reggiani was a photographer, Gaga started carrying a camera around with her, taking pictures of everything. “I noticed that Patrizia loved beautiful things,” she explained. “If something wasn’t beautiful, I deleted it.”
Does this sound like a difficult undertaking? Does permanently inhabiting the mannerisms and vocal quirks of a stranger for more than a year sound so all-consuming that it carried a risk of poor mental health? You’d be correct, and you’d also be correct in expecting Gaga to explain it in print. Describing the situation as a “psychological difficulty”, Gaga told Vogue: “I was either in my hotel room, living and speaking as Reggiani, or I was on set, living and speaking as her. I remember I went out into Italy one day with a hat on to take a walk. I hadn’t taken a walk in about two months and I panicked. I thought I was on a movie set.”
This is undoubtedly a lot of effort for a film that, judging by its trailers, seems to be about a bunch of cartoon vampires in ironic 1980s dress-up. And it’s also worth pointing out that most actors understand that a line has to be drawn somewhere. It’s one thing to do your research, but quite another to go full Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. But, still, it seems very clear that Lady Gaga has her sights set high. She is determined to be taken seriously as an actor, and if that means losing complete sight of herself in the pursuit of artistic truth, so be it. Call her Gaga Day-Lewis.