Did you know there can be 100 people in a room? And did you know that maybe 99 of those people won’t believe in you? And did you know — and I mean really, really know — that all you need is the one person who does believe in you? Perhaps you knew this. Lady Gaga has said it more than once while promoting A Star Is Born. The quote rivals the movie’s most famous scene: Bradley Cooper stands inches away from Lady Gaga on a stage or at an event or on a red carpet, and she looks at him tearfully, describing him as the One Who Believed in Her, the one person who believed that she could take on A Star Is Born’s titular star. It’s happened so often there’s even a super-cut:
During a GQ LIVE talk over the weekend, Gaga’s well-worn anecdote got an extra bump of support from Jonah Hill. “When it was going around, I think it was from a place of mean intent,” he told moderator Zach Baron. “But I thought to myself, damn, she really is an incredible actor. She’s delivering those same talking points every night and making them sound new. That’s acting.”
Madonna has suggested that Gaga’s refrain is a rip-off of something she once said, but in an Elle profile, Gaga described the anecdote’s origins from her old vocal coach, Don Lawrence: “I was taking meetings with entertainment attorneys and knocking on people’s doors, trying to get them to listen to demos that I made on a four-track Tascam cassette player, and [Lawrence] said to me, ‘There can be a hundred people in the room, and 99 of them won’t believe in you, but all you need is one.’”