Clint Eastwood Was Stunned by Lady Gaga After Believing She Wasn’t the Right Actor for a Role: “I think she is stunning in it”
Actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood rose to fame with his portrayal of Man With No Name in Dollars Trilogy. He is also regarded for his role as an antihero cop Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry movies which led to him being the cultural icon of masculinity throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Eastwood has directed some of the most successful and popular movies including Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Sully, American Sniper, and more. He became one of the few actors who after turning their direction towards directing movies have seen critical and commercial success. The filmmaker however had doubts about Lady Gaga being a part of one project he was initially supposed to direct but he was wrong. Let’s know more about it.
Clint Eastwood had doubts about Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born
2018’s A Star Is Born; starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is a musical romantic drama directed by Bradley Cooper himself. It was his directorial debut and fourth adaptation of the story and received positive reviews upon its release. The critics and the audience appreciated the chemistry between the actors, Cooper’s direction along with screenplay, music, and cinematography of the movie.
Back in 2011, it was announced that Clint Eastwood would be directing the movie and was in talks with Beyoncé for the role with Cooper playing the male lead. The project was delayed due to Beyoncé’s pregnancy. However, in 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the Hangover actor had been eyeing to make A Star Is Born his directorial debut. In 2016 Lady Gaga was finally announced as the female lead opposite Cooper in the movie.
So when Eastwood was directing the movie, Lady Gaga was not on his radar to play the female lead. He had his eyes set on Beyoncé for the part so when Cooper’s version of the movie came out, Eastwood shared with Extra TV via NME;
“I thought he did a great job. A lot of things that I wasn’t sure about…like he wanted Lady Gaga…I wasn’t sure she was right for it, but I think she is stunning in it.”
Bradley Cooper shared with E! News back in 2019;
“I knew it when I met her. Clearly I knew that she had one of the best voices of our time and then when I met her, I felt like she was so soulful and deep and open and warm and caring and I thought, ‘God, if I could just capture what I’m seeing right now talking to her, we’re going to be OK.”
He added that he thinks that he got lucky because Gaga is an incredible actress.
Also read: “I needed a mask”: Sergio Leone Cast Clint Eastwood in Iconic Trilogy Despite Thinking Low of Him
Clint Eastwood was Bradley Cooper’s inspiration to direct A Star Is Born
During an interview with EW, Cooper mentioned that he didn’t think of directing the movie until Eastwood decided to drop the project. He said,
“ I was too young. I always thought I didn’t have enough experience to play this guy. But that was when I first became aware of this project and first met Client actually. He was thinking about doing it and we were talking about it. I was 38 at the time and now I am 43, and I just knew..I just thought, ‘I don’t know if I could buy me like that’.”
Also read: War Veteran’s Father Threatened To “Unleash Hell”on Clint Eastwood For 1 Bradley Cooper Film
Cooper went on to explain,
“And then life happens and we wound up doing American Sniper together which aged me. And then a year of doing The Elephant Man aged me. And I thought, ‘ You know what? I think I’m ready’.”
He shared with Vogue at the time that he wanted to tell a love story and for him, the love story is best shared via music. He added that with music it’s impossible to hide because every fiber of your body becomes alive when you sing.
A Star Is Born is considered as one of the best versions of the story that has seen a lot of remakes. It’s available to stream on VOD.
