This post has been updated throughout with even more Star Is Born compliments from Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, and me, Hunter Harris.
If 2018 has given us one blessing, it is the knowledge that Bradley Cooper is the world’s leading Little Monster. The Star Is Born press tour does not live up to the histrionics of the movie or even the trailer, but it has bestowed us one gift: a lot of compliments, which is good if you like to see and hear people saying nice things! (A kink of mine.) As Cooper and Gaga promote their love child of a movie, they often compliment one another profusely. Cooper speaks effusively about the way Gaga’s brown hair catches the light, or the way she groans out a “Shallow†lyric that goes a little something like: HHHHAAaA aaahAAHAhHHAHAAAh aHAHaha! (My esteemed colleague Nate Jones incorrectly transcribed it as: “HAAA AH AH AH AH, AAAH AAAH, AH AH AH AH HAAA,†but I assure you that my transcription is more accurate.) Gaga, in turn, compliments the deep growl Cooper spoke in for the movie.
In A Star Is Born, Cooper stars as Jackson Maine, a wayward, boozing rock-country singer, bewitched by Ally, a singer-songwriter who doesn’t wear makeup and doesn’t like her nose. They fall in love and make music, and then, once Ally becomes increasingly successful and Jackson increasingly drunk, things get more complicated. But none of that happens during the Star Is Born press tour, which is entirely polite and wholesome. So, which compliment from the Star Is Born’s press cycle is your favorite?
Bradley Cooper about Lady Gaga
“Lady Gaga is just kind of a revelation.†(To Robert De Niro at the Tribeca Film Festival, April 21)
“I think the biggest thing I learned is that sky’s the limit if you find a companion artistically, and you have a project … There is no dreaming too big. What people can do together is so much more powerful than what they can do by themselves.†(To Entertainment Weekly, August 9)
“I fell in love with her face and eyes.†(At the Venice Film Festival, August 31)
“I remember when we first met, after ten minutes we were eating homemade food that she cooked — I love to eat — and that was actually a huge bond that we both came from East Coast Italian-American families. So we had a real synchronicity on that level from our upbringing.†(At the Venice Film Festival, August 31)
“I remember every single moment of it. From the moment she walked down the stairs, it was one of those magical things.†(To ET, September 9)
“She came down the stairs and we went out to her patio and I saw her eyes, and honestly, it clicked.†(To Vogue, September 9)
“At Glastonbury, I got onstage in front of 80,000 people. It was nuts. But Lady Gaga is so good that if the world I’d created wasn’t authentic, it would stand out in a second. Everything had to be raised to her level.†(To Vogue, September 9)
“The whole thing is that these two people found each other and it is a pure love. And it is easier when you have somebody with you going down the road. And I had that with Stefani going down this road. I can’t imagine having the courage to do it without her.†(To Vanity Fair, September 10)
“She leveled the entire room when she came out.†(To Vanity Fair, September 10)
“She was so open.†(To The New York Times Magazine, September 27)
“The world had to match her, because if the world’s not authentic, and then you have this authentic person in it, it’s going to, like, destroy the whole film. So, I just knew that I had to literally become the real guy, and the movie had to be, had to look like the real thing.†(To The New York Times Magazine, September 27)
“She demolished the room. I knew that was plutonium.†(To the AP, October 1)
“Lady Gaga’s the real deal, so the rest of the movie, it just had to be authentic.†(To Jimmy Fallon, October 3)
“She really brought it. I saw her sing ‘La Vie en Rose’ at this cancer benefit at Sean Parker’s house, and she just decimated the room.†(To Jimmy Fallon, October 3)
“She was completely illuminated by the sun. So charismatic. I thought inside my head, Oh, gosh. If she is like this on film, if that’s the worst-case scenario that she’s this present on film, the movie will work.†(To The New York Times Magazine, October 3)
“When you have Lady Gaga looking at you as if you are [a singer-songwriter], you start to believe it. She gave me the confidence.†(To FilmStruck, October 5)
“My favorite acting of hers in the whole movie, I think, is the last song. have to watch an actress, a character go through grief, but through singing this song. It’s not just a performance. It’s not even a performance. It’s a scene.†(To FilmStruck, October 5)
“She entrusted me with giving herself so she could reveal herself to be the actress that she is, and I entrusted her that I would be able to become the musician that I was terrified to be.†(To Time, October 8)
“I love her so deeply. It’s because we were at our most vulnerable together.†(To Time, October 8)
“There’s one thing to have chemistry, and there’s another thing to put work in. And I have to say, what she did, the amount of work — I don’t know if other actors would put in the amount of work and preparation … It really is due to her work ethic.†(During an Academy Conversation, October 8)
“I don’t believe that she’s acting refined, I think she’s just being real. She’s incredible. Her willingness to put the work in — I postponed the movie two months just so she and I could work on our characters together. She’s very busy. Her willingness to put all that work in — Thank God!†(To Variety’s Playback podcast, November 29)
Lady Gaga about Bradley Cooper
“Watching Bradley work was phenomenal and then having him believe in me — it gave me more ammunition to believe in myself and I just feel so blessed to have had that experience.†(To Entertainment Weekly, August 9)
“I think what I learned from Bradley [is] it’s okay to be relentlessly sure of your vision and to go after it with every fiber of your being and to never stop white-gloving what you’re making.†(To Entertainment Weekly, August 9)
“It was so wonderful, Bradley’s curiosity about drag makeup.†(To Vulture, September 8)
“I looked at him and I said, ‘Bradley, you have an incredible voice, you sing from your gut, you sing from your soul, you sing from the nectar of your being.’†(To ET, September 9)
“If he wants to, he can do anything.†(To ET, September 9)
“It was instantaneous, and I knew in this moment that I could make this film with him, and I truly believe that there’s no other actor or director in the world that could have played this role or made this film.†(To ET, September 9)
“The second that I saw him I was like, Have I known you my whole life? It was an instant connection, instant understanding of one another.†(To Vogue, September 9)
“The truth is, I made this film with Bradley because I believe in him as a filmmaker, an actor, as a screenwriter, as a musician.†(To Vanity Fair, September 10)
“And when I heard him sing! My God! I stopped playing the piano and I was like, ‘Bradley you can sing!’†(To the AP, October 1)
“From the moment we met, I felt a kindred spirit in him. And as soon as I heard him sing, I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew he could play a rock star. Actually, he’s the only actor on the planet who could play this one.†(To Time, October 8)
“He filmed it like poetry, and he edited it, with Jay, like music.†(During an Academy Conversation, October 8)
“He has a passion like gasoline.†(During an Academy Conversation, October 8)
“I can’t say enough about this brilliant man. He … [goes speechless]†(During an Academy Conversation, October 8)
“I did this because I believed in him and all the people he brought together. I’ll stick to directing music videos.†(To Variety, November 13)
“It was like a magic trick for us … really, he was like Houdini.†(To Vanity Fair, November 21)
“I ran from Stefani for a long time, and I put on a superhero cape and called myself Lady Gaga. You challenged me to deep-dive into a place where I had to see her again, where I had to be Stefani again.†(At an American Cinematheque tribute to Cooper, November 29)
And now, a fun game you can play yourself:
Me, Hunter Harris, about A Star Is Born
“A Star Is Born gave birth to me! A Star Is Born is my mom now!†(To Vulture, October 4)
“Bradley Cooper’s greasy hair — yee-haw!†(Also to Vulture, October 4)
“Who wants to come over and dance to Ally’s sellout bops!†(Again, to Vulture, October 9)
“Jackson Maine can dig more than my grave!†(Duh, to Vulture, October 10)
“Jackson Maine’s boot can smash more than that Percocet!†(Of course, to Vulture, November 13)
“When Ally said ‘aren’t you tired tryin’ to fill that void,’ I … felt that.†(to Vulture, November 30)