MOVE over Daniel Day Lewis, Lady Gaga is here to take your crown as the most method actor of method actors.
Lady Gaga says she spent 18 months in character as Patrizia Reggiani while filming House of Gucci. That’s commitment alright, but Lady Gaga says it also left her with “some psychological difficulty” after a year and a half of not imitating but “becoming” someone.
She’s been speaking to Vogue about the immersive experience and the fact she chose not to meet the person she was depicting.
“You know, I only felt that I could truly do this story justice if 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.
“Meaning that nobody was going to tell me who Patrizia Gucci was. Not even Patrizia Gucci.”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Patrizia Reggiani/Gucci. Patrizia in turn has told an Italian journalist “I am quite annoyed by the fact that Lady Gaga is playing me in the new Ridley Scott film without even having the foresight and sensitivity to come and meet me.”
Patrizia is the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci whose father established the Gucci brand. Maurizio was shot dead in March 1995 and Patrizia served 18 of a 26-year prison sentence for her part in his murder.
Lady Gaga details the lengths she went to to deliver an authentic sound for Patrizia who grew up in Vignola in the north of Italy.
“I started with a specific dialect from Vignola, then I started to work in the higher class way of speaking that would have been more appropriate in places like Milan and Florence. In the movie, you’ll hear that my accent is a little different depending on who I’m speaking to.”
And rather than risk losing that voice, Lady Gaga spoke as Patrizia for nine months, even when she was off-camera.
“I never broke. I stayed with her,” Lady Gaga explains.
And how do you think that worked out for Gaga?
“I had some psychological difficulty at one point towards the end of filming,” she tells 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.”
As soon as she had finished filming Lady Gaga dropped the accent but other elements of the performance proved harder to shake.
“You end up sounding and looking like them, yes, but it’s not an imitation, it’s a becoming. I remember when we started filming, I knew I had become – and I knew that the greater challenge was going to be unbecoming.”
Is it healthy? Of course not. Might she win an Oscar? It’s likely. Was it worth it? Only Lady Gaga can decide.
Jodie Comer knows it's the end for Killing Eve
AS one of the best things on the telly for a long time Killing Eve is approaching its fourth and final series and Jodie Comer is as upset about it as you are.
“I’m trying not to think about it too much, honestly. It’s sad, you know? I’ve been with this character for a really, really long time,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.
Despite all that, Jodie knows it’s time for the show to bow out.
“I would rather we ended on a good note and kept our integrity, instead of going on and on, and being kicked out the door.”
Never a truer word Jodie, never a truer word. If only other shows would follow suit.
Nothing fishy about a sardine advent calendar
THIS week’s high five goes to the German genius who created a sardine advent calendar.
Charles Vestal said you can buy Lego advent calendars, jam ones and whiskey too so why not sardines. And who doesn’t want 25 days worth of Omega-1 goodness?
Charles said it was a “passion project/joke”, prompted by a visit to Portugal and the brightly coloured tins of sardine he brought home with him.
“It’s inspired by two things: I think advent calendars are fun and I think that dumb jokes you follow through with are really funny.”
High five Charles.
