Bradley cooper and lady gaga at the oscars

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the 2019 Oscars was when Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga performed the song "Shallow" from their film, A Star Is Born. The performance was so passionate, fans speculated that real sparks were flying between the two onstage. At the time, Gaga addressed the romance rumors by saying, "Yes, people saw love and—guess what—that's what we wanted you to see." And now, Cooper has expanded on those intentions in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

According to THR, Cooper's emotive presence onstage was in part a strategy to help "manage his own fears about singing live." While singing with Gaga, the actor imagined himself in the scene from the movie during which Jackson Maine, Cooper's character, brings Gaga's Ally onstage for a first-time duet that would propel Ally into stardom and the two into romance. Reliving the scene helped the actor transport himself away from stage fright and lose himself in the performance. "Just from a personal standpoint, it reduces the anxiety level," he said.

It was also a way for him to bring dynamism to the live performance. "They kind of fall in love in that scene in the film. It's that explosive moment that happens to happen to them on a stage in front of thousands of people," Cooper added. "It would have been so weird if we were both on stools facing the audience."

Further affirming that the performance was simply powerful acting, Gaga told ELLE in November 2019, "Quite frankly, I think the press is very silly. I mean, we made a love story. For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on."

Cooper, who directed the 2018 film, is still talking about his respect for Gaga as an artist. Elsewhere in the THR interview, he praised her for the immense talent and drive she brought to the project. "She's just so terribly charismatic and beautiful," he said. "When I met her, I thought, 'If I can just harness that … then it's just for me to mess up.' But then, when we started working together, I realized, 'Oh, oh, the sky's the limit in terms of what she's able to do and her commitment level.'"

At the time of the movie's release in October 2018, Cooper was dating supermodel Irina Shayk, while Gaga was in a relationship with Creative Artiststalent agent Christian Carino. Gaga is currently with Michael Polansky, a board member of San Francisco's Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. As for Cooper? Nobody knows.

Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.

Three years after starring opposite Bradley Cooper in the Oscar-winning A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga continues to prove their friendship is the real deal.

Speaking for Entertainment Weekly's Awardist podcast, Gaga expressed her gratitude to Cooper for helping her successfully cross over from the world of pop stardom into Hollywood.

She told the outlet that their work together on the 2018 film, which was nominated for Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards and won for Best Original Song, has allowed her to "read lots of scripts and talk to lots of different directors." His acting advice has helped too.

"Bradley Cooper believed in me for the role of Ally Maine in A Star Is Born,"she said of her former costar (who also directed, produced, and co-wrote the film). Gaga added that she had "absolutely" consulted Cooper before taking on the starring role of Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci, another showstopping performance that has already earned her a Golden Globe nomination and, as awards season rolls on, continues to attract Oscars buzz.

"It was the success of our artistic collaboration that landed me where I am now," she said.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga perform onstage together at the 91st Academy Awards.

The sentiment is clearly reciprocated by Cooper, who recently spoke about Gaga in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"She's just so terribly charismatic and beautiful," he told the outlet. "When I met her, I thought, 'If I can just harness that … then it's just for me to mess up.' But then, when we started working together, I realized, 'Oh, oh, the sky's the limit in terms of what she's able to do and her commitment level.'"

Chelsey Sanchez is an Associate Editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers pop culture, politics, and social movements. 

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