Lady Gaga says she took her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in the forthcoming House of Gucci very seriously.
“I lived as her for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that,” Gaga told British Vogue. “Off-camera, I never broke. I stayed with her.”
Reggiani, the ex-wife of fashion heir Maurizio Gucci (played by Adam Driver) was convicted in 1998 of hiring a hitman to fatally shoot Gucci outside his office on March 27, 1995. She was sentenced to 29 years in prison but was released in 2016 after serving only 18 years.
Gaga said her method acting didn’t go unnoticed by co-star Salma Hayek. “We were in between takes and Salma was like, ‘Oh, this f**king method actor is over here. You know, she’s not talking to me right now.’ Because I was doing sense memory work next to her, and she was making fun of me while I was sitting there doing it,” recalled Gaga. "And I didn’t even laugh. When the scene was over, I flipped at her and I said, ‘You’re ridiculous!’ and I started laughing and I kissed her.
“It was a wonderful set, but I’m very serious when I work.”
Gaga admitted it was hard to leave Reggiani behind. “I had some psychological difficulty at one point towards the end of filming,” she said. “I was either in my hotel room, living and speaking as Reggiani, or I was on set, living and speaking as her.
“I remember I went out into Italy one day with a hat on to take a walk. I hadn’t taken a walk in about two months, and I panicked. I thought I was on a movie set.”
Reggiani is Gaga’s first big screen role since 2018’s A Star is Born remake, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
House of Gucci opens in cinemas on Nov. 24.