Lady Gaga went all Daniel Day-Lewis while preparing for her role in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming crime drama House of Gucci.
In order to fully understand the character of Patrizia Reggiani, Gaga – real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta if you doubted her Italian credentials – went really method.
“I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her for a year and a half,” she revealed to British Vogue. “And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that.”
Considering how obsessed viewers were with said accent when the House of Gucci trailer debuted, maybe her method acting was wise. “I remember when we started filming, I knew I had become – and I knew that the greater challenge was going to be unbecoming,” she added thoughtfully.
Unsurprisingly her level of commitment caused “some disconnect” from her family. “That’s my own journey as an artist that I still reckon with,” Gaga said.
Even just having blonde hair seemingly distracted Gaga. “It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde,” she recalled. “I instantly had to dye my hair, and I started to live in a way whereby anything that I looked at, anything that I touched, I started to take notice of where and when I could see money.”
Still, no matter how much you commit, not everyone will be satisfied, including even the real life person you’re portraying. Gaga’s performance has already drawn consternation from Reggiani, who alleged that Gaga never reached out to her for guidance. Not for Gaga though: she said meeting the actual person behind the character would have impacted her ability to perform the role well.
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“I approached it with the eye of a curious woman who was interested in possessing a journalistic spirit so that I could read between the lines of what was happening in the film’s scenes,” she explained. “Meaning that nobody was going to tell me who Patrizia Gucci was. Not even Patrizia Gucci.”
House of Gucci is set for release on November 24th.
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Check out Lady Gaga’s accent in the House of Gucci trailer:
