Lady Gaga would like you to stop asking: She’s not dating Bradley Cooper
For the last time, Lady Gaga is not dating Bradley Cooper.
No matter how authentic their chemistry seemed in “A Star Is Born” or how steamy their duet of the film’s hit track “Shallow” played at the Oscars, Gaga assured Oprah Winfrey in a recent interview that any romance speculation in the media is “very silly.”
“I mean, we made a love story,” the “Bad Romance” hitmaker told Winfrey for an Elle story that ran Wednesday. “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,” she added. “And we worked hard on it, we worked for days. We mapped the whole thing out — it was orchestrated as a performance.”
Despite it supposedly being a calculated charade, the immediate fervor that followed the pair’s PDA-ridden performance was not lost on the costars, who — according to Gaga — later swapped some platonic pats on the back for successfully executing their trick.
“In truth, when we talked about it, we went, ‘Well, I guess we did a good job!’” she joked.
This isn’t the first time Gaga has been forced to address gossip surrounding her close relationship with Cooper. Soon after the Oscars telecast, she similarly debunked the conspiracy theories on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“Social media, quite frankly, is the toilet of the internet and what it has done to pop culture is just, like, abysmal,” she told Kimmel. “Yes, people saw love, and guess what? That’s what we wanted you to see.”
The conversation with Winfrey surrounding Cooper’s acclaimed directorial debut, which ended up winning an Oscar for “Shallow,” then turned more serious when discussing Gaga’s layered approach to her leading role as Ally, who struggles to cope with her lover’s alcoholism after he turns her into an overnight sensation. For the veteran performer, the story’s motifs of trauma and recovery hit close to home.
“I was raped when I was 19 years old, repeatedly,” Gaga said. “I have been traumatized in a variety of ways by my career over the years from many different things, but I survived, and I’ve kept going. And when I looked at that Oscar, I saw pain.”
In her famously therapeutic style, Winfrey encouraged the singer to reflect further on how her past experiences with sexual assault have shaped her, which prompted a candid response from Gaga about the battle she continues to fight.
“I have PTSD. I have chronic pain. Neuropathic pain trauma response is a weekly part of my life. I’m on medication; I have several doctors,” Gaga said. “This is how I survive. But you know what, Oprah? I kept going, and that kid out there or even that adult out there who’s been through so much, I want them to know that they can keep going, and they can survive, and they can win their Oscar.”
Las Vegas is unmatched among entertainment destinations with its sheer level of talent.
Gaga — who is known for being outspoken about her life challenges — also opened up about additional struggles with fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder linked to muscle pain, and a harrowing moment in her past when she suffered a psychotic break.
“It was one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me,” she said of the break. “I didn’t understand what was going on, because my whole body went numb; I fully dissociated. I was screaming.”
In between promoting her new empowerment-driven beauty line and the Born This Way Foundation, the entertainer also offered some advice to others combating personal demons.
Any glimmer of hope for a real-life romance between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper was patently snuffed out by Gaga herself on Wednesday.
“If you are not yet out in the open about who you are, I would have compassion for yourself that you’re not ready yet, and take steps every day,” she said.
After wrapping her long-running Las Vegas residency next spring, the triple-threat is set to dive back into the movie industry, teaming up with “Alien” director Ridley Scott for a new film about the Gucci family and murder of the grandson of fashion empire founder Guccio Gucci.
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
