Bradley Cooper Recalls the Moment When Lady Gaga 'Blew My Mind'

Bradley Cooper says there was a scene in A Star Is Born that seemed simple (keyword: seemed) but truly it was a tall order for someone of Lady Gaga's stature to pull off so exquisitely. And it was in that seemingly simplest moment that the 46-year-old actor says his mind was blown away by the triple-threat star.

The A Star Is Born star and director shared the intimate detail while chatting with House of Gucci director Ridley Scott in Variety's "Directors on Directors" series. Cooper, of course, starred opposite Lady Gaga, and he directed her as well. She also plays the Italian socialite Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci under Scott's direction. 

While the famed directors traded notes about what it was like to direct the 12-time GRAMMY winner (hint: it was their honor), Cooper brought up their "Shallow" performance onstage. But it wasn't nailing the track that blew him away. Far from it. 

"I remember the thing that blew my mind," Cooper said. "It seemed simple but I thought it was a tall order, when my character brings [Ally] onstage for the first time. I truly believed that that person had never been on a stage before."

Translation: Cooper marveled at the fact that a bona fide global superstar got into character and convinced him that going onstage in front of a packed house was a foreign feeling to her. 

"And I remember thinking, 'How is she pulling this off?'" Cooper pondered. "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."

Scott also shared a Lady Gaga scene in House of Gucci that left the director stunned by the brilliant performance.

"There was a moment I thought, 'My God, she closed it up,’" he said. "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,’" Scott added. "I think that was one take with a handheld camera. I was saying, ‘I think you just did it, don’t you?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I did it.’ That was it.”"

It's all come full circle for Cooper, Gaga and Scott.

The 35-year-old actress recently revealed on Entertainment Weekly's The Awardist podcast that it was Cooper who "empowered" her for the role of Ally Maine in the 2018 film. She said that because of that collaboration, it's why she's able to be "where I am now," adding she's now "able to read lots of scripts and talk to lots of different directors."

Like House of Gucci and working with Scott.

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