Bradley Cooper Recalls The ‘Crazy’ Time He Met Beyoncé For ‘A Star Is Born’

Bradley Cooper met the influential couple, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, to discuss the possibility of having the ‘Renaissance’ songstress play Ally, an aspiring singer, in ‘A Star Is Born,’ a role that eventually went to Lady Gaga.

Cooper shared that he proposed Beyoncé for the role to studio executive Greg Silverman, who agreed on the condition that Cooper could secure Beyoncé as the lead and produce the film for under $25 million.

“I went to Beyoncé’s house and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember. I’m not kidding. And I was freaking [out]. I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her,” he recounted during a recent interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. “It was crazy. She was incredible and so was he and we developed it together for like a year. I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time. Then that fell through.”

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Cooper then considered Adele for the role, but she only responded to him once and was “busy.”

However, after hearing Gaga perform at a benefit concert, Cooper — who eventually directed the film and portrayed country singer Jackson ‘Jack’ Maine — was certain he had found his leading lady.

“It just blew the doors off the whole place and it was in that moment where it was like, ‘That’s it. What was I even thinking?’ And then I asked to meet her,” explained Cooper. The film received eight nominations at the 91st Academy Awards and won the award for ‘Best Original Song’ for ‘Shallow’ — a duet featuring Cooper and Gaga.

In April 2019, Cooper mentioned on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ his desire to do a live reading of the film’s script.

“What I thought would be a cool thing to do, maybe one night, would be like a live reading of the script and sing all the songs as we read the script, like at the Hollywood Bowl or something,” said Cooper. Although the idea has not materialised, he and Gaga reunited on the ‘Maestro’ red carpet in December 2023.