There are many astonishing things about A Star Is Born – from its chest-thumping live scenes, to Lady Gaga’s stellar performance, and its impressively catchy set of original songs. And at the centre of it all is Bradley Cooper giving perhaps his greatest screen performance, all while making an incredibly assured, confident directorial debut, as well as singing and playing guitar in front of live audiences. He undeniably puts everything he has on screen.
Empire sat down with Cooper at Abbey Road Studios to talk about a moment of unrestrained emotion from Cooper’s country singer Jackson Maine, the casting of Lady Gaga and how she influenced the latest take on the classic story, and how two drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race ended up starring in one of the film’s funniest and liveliest sequences.
“When you create this archetype of a man, and then an investigation of the humanity within that archetype, there’s a potential recipe for those kinds of elements – of seeing somebody who you wouldn’t expect to reveal such emotion,” Cooper said of Jackson’s tearful breakdown. “And [the] same way with his brother. The idea of repressed emotion is something that’s moving to me all the time, throughout my life – seeing my uncle cry when my grandfather passed away really floored me, because he was somebody who I’d never see do something like that.”
Read Empire’s review of A Star Is Born. The film is in UK cinemas now.