Bradley Cooper's Singing Voice Sold Lady Gaga On A Star Is Born
Looking back on 2018's "A Star is Born," it's crazy how much it blew up. This award-winning remake took the world by storm in part due to the successful chemistry and performances delivered by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. In the film, we follow seasoned musician Jackson Maine (Cooper) who chances upon struggling artist Ally (Lady Gaga). Maine can't help falling in love with her, and he convinces her to not abandon her own dreams of stardom and give it one more shot. But this isn't a happy story: Just as Ally starts seeing success, their relationship starts to fall apart when Jackson's personal demons rear up to rip him to shreds.
It's difficult to imagine this remake without Lady Gaga. She was not Cooper's original pick until he accidentally saw her perform at a cancer benefit. "I was at a cancer benefit with my mother," Cooper shared with W.
"I really did not know Lady Gaga's music. They had a surprise musical guest, and [Gaga] came out with her hair slicked back, and she sang 'La Vie en Rose.' I was blown away, like in that old Maxell cassette commercial where the guy's hair is blown back."
This stripped down appearance combined with her vocals blew Cooper away. Knowing Gaga was his Ally, he was determined to convince her to sign on. That would be the tricky part. It would take Cooper's singing voice to convince the performing artist to sign on.
One performance is all it takes
Cooper wasted no time. He reached out to her agent before driving out to her home to talk with her. Bonding over a meal of spaghetti and meatballs, he then popped the question, "Can we sing a song together?" Got to hand it to him. Cooper had chutzpah.
After asking her if she knew the song 'The Midnight Special' and locating the sheet music, they got together at her piano to sing. If you've seen the video included on the "A Star is Born" extras, you can see them both together making adjustments as they go along. It was during this practice session while making vocal adjustments that Gaga was sold on his voice and — ultimately — the project, she explained to W:
"I had heard about the project through the grapevine, and I've wanted to be an actress since I was a child. I even took sense memory classes at Lee Strasberg when I was very young. So when Bradley came over, he immediately felt like a kindred spirit — we ate leftovers on my patio and started singing together. When I heard how soulful his voice was, I knew the movie would work."
It would take a bit more convincing from Warner Bros. Pictures before they would agree to her casting. But the rest, as they say, was history once she passed the studio's trials. If Cooper hadn't immediately jumped to cast her, who knows how "A Star is Born" would have turned out.