Lady Gaga and director Ridley Scott have been interviewed by The New York Times, to discuss House of Gucci, the upcoming movie of the director that will star Lady Gaga as the main character.
You can read an excerpt of the interview below:
Talk to me about staying in Patrizia’s accent for so many months. Was that tiring?
GAGA I think it would have done more of a number on me had I not practiced it so much. I would be talking like this with my mother, with friends, so that I, Stefani, could speak like this and it would be totally natural. It’s like muscle memory, so that when you’re in the scene, the accent is not in the way of the visceral quality of what’s happening in the room.
If I had a jazz show next week, if I don’t rehearse ahead of time, my voice is not ready for the show. My approach to this was not different than my commitment to music. But I want to be clear: I don’t think it’s about sensationalizing method acting or being in character as the only way to do things. It would have been harder for me to go in and out of character on set than to stay in it.
Ridley, how did you feel about the box office performance of The Last Duel? It got strong reviews and boasted big stars in Matt Damon and Adam Driver, but still underperformed in theaters.
SCOTT It was exceedingly disappointing. The fatal thing is when you think you’ve got it, you haven’t — I thought I’d got it on Blade Runner and I hadn’t! I was crucified by a big critic at the time called Pauline Kael. It’s why I never read critiques, ever. You have to be your own decider — if you worry about what the audience is thinking and what they may want, that’s fatal. A good film will find itself, and now Blade Runner is in the Library of Congress.
But still, it must add some wind to your sails when people are excited about your work. Even while you were making House of Gucci, the pictures from set caused an online sensation.
SCOTT No, totally. There’s nothing like success to make you feel good in the morning, right? At the same time, if you get some kind of clip or hit, don’t let it get to you. If you like what you did, move on.
GAGA I can’t agree more. When you are making art to please people or seek praise, this is not sustainable. You’re essentially passionate about getting people to love you as opposed to being passionate about the work. I know I lost my way as an artist for a while when I started to care about what would make people like me. Then I rebelled, because why should I follow a North Star that keeps moving?
My whole career, I’ve had ups, I’ve had downs. When you were talking about Blade Runner, I was thinking about my record ARTPOP and how they put out critiques before it even came out. Because of freedom of speech, people can write whatever they want, even if it’s lies, but years later, it’s one of my most critically acclaimed albums.
We have no idea what this movie’s going to do after it opens, but it doesn’t matter because we know we made something great. When you get to be lucky like me and be in one of his movies, you know that no matter what, this is going to last a lifetime.
Read the full interview on nytimes.com
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