Lady Gaga opened up about her experience playing Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s upcoming film House of Gucci.
The highly anticipated film follows the real-life story of Reggiani, who married the heir to the Gucci fashion house, Maurizio Gucci. After a turbulent marriage and divorce, the wealthy woman served 18 years in prison for hiring a hitman to murder her husband in 1995.
While the role was previously proposed to be played by Angelina Jolie, Margot Robbie or Penelope Cruz, Lady Gaga ended up joining the film alongside Adam Driver (Maurizio Gucci).
The 35-year-old star opted for a method-acting approach, avoiding breaking the accent or character for long periods. But the strict and extreme technique affected her mental health, Gaga said during an interview with British Vogue, where she appears as the cover star for December 2021.
Gaga explained that she had gone so deep into Reggiani’s role that she experienced psychological difficulties, adding that she had lived as her character for a year and a half and spoke with an accent for nine months offset. “I never broke. I stayed with her,” she recalled.
The singer and actress also said: “I had some psychological difficulty at one point towards the end of filming. 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,” she went on.
Gaga, which real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, was nominated for an Oscar for her role in A Star Is Born. However, she has faced criticism for her upcoming performance, including some comments from Patrizia Reggiani herself.
In March, Reggiani told an Italian journalist that she was “quite annoyed” that Lady Gaga was playing her in the new movie “without even having the foresight and sensitivity to come and meet me.”
Speaking to British Vogue, Gaga addressed Reggiani’s remarks, saying that she only wanted to do the story justice through the gaze of a curious woman interested in possessing a journalistic spirit so she could read between the lines what was happening in the film’s scenes. That means “nobody was going to tell me who Patrizia Gucci was, not even Patrizia Gucci,” she stated.
