Lady Gaga opened up about feeling “ugly” while filming A Star Is Born in a heartbreaking interview
Ever since the first trailer for A Star Is Born dropped, we’ve been floored by Lady Gaga’s vulnerable, unfiltered performance as aspiring singer Ally. And in a new interview, Gaga opened up about her initial insecurity over the bare-faced performance.
In the interview, published today, August 30th, in the Los Angeles Times, Gaga recalled that when she did a screen test for the role in 2016, her director and co-star, Bradley Cooper, approached her with a makeup wipe and asked her to remove her mascara, concealer, and blush; he said he wanted their test to be “completely open.” Gaga, who’s known for her dramatic makeup looks, admitted that being so unfiltered made her feel vulnerable. However, she told interviewer Amy Kaufman that she decided to “completely let go and trust” Cooper in that moment.
"It put me right in the place I needed to be, because when my character talks about how ugly she feels—that was real," Gaga recalled in the interview. "I'm so insecure. I like to preach, but I don't always practice what I preach."
The singer went on to say that, like her character Ally, when she started out in the music industry, she was often told that she didn’t have the right “look.” In the end, she told Kaufman that it’s her fans who ultimately make her feel beautiful.
"To be honest, I think what makes me feel beautiful is when I see happiness in my fans," she said. "When I see or hear from them that the music that I've made has changed their life in some way, that's what makes me feel beautiful. Because this is just the outside, you know? And at the end of the day, I could be in a million movies and put out a million songs and everyone could say, 'She was so beautiful,' but that's not really what I want. I want them to say, 'I saw that movie and I cried my eyes out and I learned something about myself."
While it’s heartbreaking to hear that Gaga suffers from insecurity and body image issues, we’re also applauding her honesty. So many people struggle with self-acceptance or somehow feel “less than” because they don’t fit into arbitrary and unrealistic standards of beauty (and honestly, many feel that way even when they do). Gaga’s words remind us that everyone feels insecure sometimes—even glowing pop idols.
Let’s all remember to love ourselves a little more today—including you, Gaga!
