As the summer winds down and we enter autumn, the awards hopefuls will be making their way to theater screens, among them, Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, the remake of A Star is Born. The film stars Bradley Cooper as musician Jackson Maine, who discovers Ally, a struggling songstress played by Lady Gaga, and gives her a leg up. Teaming up with a real life singer-songwriter brings a certain level of authenticity to the music in the film, but Bradley Cooper wasn't quite prepared for just how authentic Lady Gaga wanted to make it. He actually freaked out when she told him he'd need to sing the film's music live.
Instead of just lip-syncing the words over playback as some films do, Lady Gaga insisted that the duo actually sing the songs live to make it real. Bradley Cooper admits that he freaked out, saying, "My throat closed up" upon hearing this. Although he's a music lover, Bradley Cooper was not a singer before A Star is Born, so he had to train to essentially become one for the film, so the pressure of having to actually sing live, in front of people, was quite daunting. However, despite his initial fear about singing live, Bradley Cooper conceded to USA Today that "she was right."
When actors are lip-syncing over playback in a movie, the result can vary from convincing to distracting as just a layman in the audience. So it is unsurprising that an actual musical artist like Lady Gaga would pick up on the lip syncing. She apparently hates it and didn't want to take that approach in A Star is Born, instead demanding to sing live. You can see why this would freak Bradley Cooper out though, because this film involved singing in front of live audiences at music festivals.
Bradley Cooper had Lady Gaga by his side for some stuff, but he also had to take the stage solo to sing. The director and his muse appeared at Coachella, Stagecoach and Glastonbury to film concert scenes for the film to make it as authentic and real as possible, and judging by the trailer, they succeeded. It's a small sample size, but the trailer for A Star is Born really sells itself with the musical performances, indicating that this film may be something special.
A Star is Born kicks off its potential awards campaign, along with many other Oscar hopefuls, when it premieres at Toronto Film Festival next month. For those of us who can't make the journey, A Star is Born rocks theaters when it opens on October 5. For all of the movies coming later this year, from comic book blockbusters to possible Oscar contenders, check out our release calendar.
