Lady Gaga Says She 'Very Much Identified With' Both Characters in 'A Star Is Born' (Exclusive)

The performer raved about one relatable scene in particular by her co-star and director, Bradley Cooper.

Lady Gaga has seen both sides of the tumultuous journey to fame depicted in her upcoming film, A Star Is Born.

The performer stars as aspiring singer-songwriter Ally in the film alongside first-time director Bradley Cooper, who plays Jackson Maine, a grizzled, boozy veteran of the music scene. And while Gaga -- who started her own musical career years ago under her given name, Stefani Germanotta -- can certainly identify with Ally's road to superstardom, she told ET that there are also elements of Jackson's story that resonated in a big way.

"I always say I very much identified with Ally, but also I very much identified with Jackson in this film," the singer admitted when the co-stars sat down with ET's Keltie Knight at the Toronto Film Festival this week. "You know, when he gets into the car after he plays his shows and it goes to first, first silence and then you can hear the ringing in his ear from the tinnitus. That's very much what it is like. And it's a very empty, lonely feeling, coming off-stage." 

"You're on this tremendous high and then all of a sudden, like he said, the cacophony drops and there's silence and your ears are ringing from being in the room and it's a challenge. And he portrayed it just so beautifully. I mean it's spot on."

The aural landscaping of the film, Cooper explained, was very importantly to him when shaping the look and feel of this iteration of the well-known story (previous reimaginings of the 1937 Janet Gaynor/Fredric March film have starred Judy Garland and James Mason in 1954 and Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in 1976).

"When I talked to her about the movie, I think I talked about how I heard the movie," Cooper said of drawing from Gaga's experience with musical superstardom. "I didn't want any photographs or paparazzi chasing people or anything, because I don't garner anything from that. For me, it's all about sound, and the cacophony of noise and that deep, deep silence, and the rhythm of the movie has that throughout it."

And both stars admit to having experience with the more critical side of the limelight, with Cooper joking, "Are you kidding me?" when asked if he's ever gotten advice to change something about himself.

"It's a rough business. And you have to have thick skin," he added. "It's not for everybody. I've heard [criticism of] everything, every face... everything in my body."

"Yeah, I was suggested to get a nose job before I put out my first single and shot the video," Gaga agreed. "I just said no."

The pair may have had rocky roads to the A-list, but their own journeys have culminated in the acclaimed film, which screened to raves from critics at TIFF after debuting at the Venice Film Festival last month. The stellar reviews, in part, are thanks to the connection between the two stars, who told ET they clicked right away.

"The chemistry was instant -- the minute that she was kind enough to let me come and talk to her about this potential project," Cooper said of working together. "And so we were like, what are we going to do with this? So the fact that we forged a friendship by creating art together is kind of the most ideal way to use that chemistry."

A Star Is Born hits theaters on Oct. 5. See more on the movie below.

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