Whatever fans think of Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, few can dismiss Lady Gaga’s explosive performance as Patrizia Reggiani. The ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, heir to the famous Italian fashion house, Reggiani had him killed in 1995, earning her the nickname “The Black Widow” and enshrouding her –and the entire Gucci family– in scandal and infamy.
Lady Gaga showcases Patrizia’s heartache during the events leading up to the hit, borne from the rejection she felt after being abandoned by the love of her life when she’d put everything into making him successful. With so much of her self-worth tied into her marriage, it’s not hard to see why Patrizia becomes desperate, and the toll it took on Gaga to lend realism to a part that could have become a caricature.
It Was A Painful Process
“I Put My Entire Lifetime Into Her.”
Lady Gaga always knew it would be important to play Patrizia as more than just a scorned ex-wife turned murderer. She would need to imbue her with authenticity, from her robust personality to the genuine love she had for her husband. She also understood the gravity of playing a working-class Italian woman without a lot of power and influence.
Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, she explained that she drew on her own painful experiences of “being attacked when I was a young girl”, essentially putting her “entire lifetime into her” to make her performance seem genuine.
She Went Full Method
“I Didn’t Break Character.”
In order to nail the part, Gaga spoke in a Northern Italian accent even when the cameras weren’t rolling, effectively logging months worth of time staying in character. This even ended up frightening her colleagues, particularly Salma Hayek, who plays her psychic friend Pina in the movie.
In the same interview with the Hollywood Reporter, she described a scene in which she knocked a lit candle across the room and nearly “gave Salma a heart attack” because of how visceral she was. Employing the Stanislavski acting method, whereby an actor draws on their own memories to give a scene more realism, she “didn’t break character”, but sometimes was so focused that it wasn’t even a choice she was consciously making.
She Was Full Of Anxiety
“You Wake Up, You Throw Up, You Go To Set, Throw Up Again.”
Lady Gaga has always been a huge advocate of mental health services, but it’s not just her fame that gets them taken seriously; the performer suffers from anxiety herself. On the entire four-month shoot for the movie, she routinely woke up at 3 a.m. and immediately vomited due to anxiety, stress, and fatigue.
“You wake up, you throw up, you go to set, throw up again,” she told the Hollywood Reporter, citing her strive for perfectionism and her fear of falling short of her own artistic expectations being a big reason for her condition. Many actors do as much research and preparation as they can for a role and then let it go once filming begins, because expectations and preconceived notions of a performance can ruin it.
She Loved Working With Adam Driver
“Every Day He Made Me Laugh. He Made Me Cry. He Was Wildly Intelligent.”
Knowing that the plot of a movie focuses on a love doomed to failure might impact the relationship between two romantic leads. But by all accounts, Lady Gaga and Adam Driver had a fantastic working relationship that wasn’t soured by the dark turn the romance between Patrizia and Maurizio took in real-life.
Speaking with E!Online, Gaga had nothing but complimentary things to say about her co-star, referring to him as “highly intelligent” even as he took her on a rollercoaster of emotions. That sort of conviviality between co-stars makes for a more authentic film, and definitely adds to the specific chemistry between Gaga and Driver onscreen as a married couple.
She Felt Intimidated By The Cast
“Everyone Else Had Done So Many Movies.”
Even though her performance in A Star Is Born was nominated for an Academy Award, Lady Gaga still had some reservations about her craft when she was acting with such an esteemed cast. In an interview with the principal cast of the movie for Access Hollywood, Gaga revealed that being around such famous actors was intimidating, especially since they were so experienced.
Since the cast of House of Gucci had acted in so many more movies than her, Gaga was humbled by the experience of working with them and opened herself up to their encouragement and advice. It’s that sort of professional, committed, and respectful attitude that all but ensures she’ll only continue to get better at acting and, just like her esteemed castmates, have a long filmography.
She Learned It Was Okay To Break Character Once In A While
“I Was Constantly Inside Of The Life.”
Much like her co-star Jared Leto, Lady Gaga was known as a method actor on set, maintaining Patrizia’s mannerisms and accent even in between scenes. Gaga admitted certain cast members told her that there were ways to drop her character and leave it aside until she needed to become it again, it would just require practice.
In the same interview, Gaga explained that the movie was “psychologically challenging” because even when she returned to her hotel room each night after filming, she was “constantly inside of the life” of Patrizia Reggiani. When an artist devotes so much time and loses so much of themselves in a role, it’s not difficult to see how much of a toll it would take on their psyche.
Her Favorite Outfit Was The Red Snow-Suit
Patrizia Reggiani has a number of beautiful ensembles in the movie (Lady Gaga wears 54 different looks to be exact), but one stands out above all the others; the bright red snowsuit that she wears in St. Moritz after following her husband, Maurizio Gucci, who has fled to Switzerland following a raid on his home by financial police.
To conclude her interview with Access Hollywood, Gaga declared the outfit her favorite, because while she felt every other one she wore for a scene indicated that Patrizia was simply trying to survive, the red snowsuit was worn in a moment of purposeful malevolence. Watching the scene, viewers can clearly see a change in Patrizia as she not-so-subtly informs Maurizio’s suspected lover she will do whatever it takes to protect her marriage.
She Had A Big Decision To Make
“I Had To Decide As An Actress, ‘Did She Have The Murder Gene? Was She Born A Killer?'”
Most villains don’t see themselves as villains but rather as the heroes of their own stories. While House of Gucci doesn’t highlight Patrizia as the most likable person, her circumstances indicate a woman pushed to her emotional limits, who feels there is no way to assuage her pain but to inflict more of it on the person she feels wronged her.
Speaking to NPR, Gaga explained that when preparing to play Patrizia, she had to quickly decide if she felt that she had “the murder gene”, essentially predestined by her genetics to have homicidal urges, or if she was a woman driven to violence by circumstance.
She Based Her Accent On Donatella Versace
To achieve Patrizia’s distinct way of speaking English, Gaga had an Italian vocal coach, but she also turned to her longtime friend Donatella Versace for help. The songstress imitated the platinum-haired fashionista (shown here being played by Penelope Cruz) to better understand how a true Italian woman sounded.
In the same NPR interview, she went on to say, “I took my time to erase the things that I do so that I could study the way that she talked so that it would be authentic…So when she’s younger, you’ll notice her voice is higher, and then later in the film, her voice is lower. So there was a real sort of scientific way that I approached that.” It’s that level of specificity and dedication that makes the role so genuine and compelling.
She Focused On Love
“She Really Loved Him.”
In order to find more ways to connect with her character, Lady Gaga focused on an often overlooked aspect of the murderess — she loved her husband. Gaga knew something about putting her all into her romantic relationships, and understood the commitment Patrizia had to Maurizio and how betrayed she felt when he left her.
Concluding the NPR interview, she explained why it was so hard for Patrizia to accept her marriage was over; “She thought she mattered because he loved her. And then to be left behind and abandoned. I do think that that was the hat trick with this movie is that there was heart put into this film.” By grasping the very human element of Patrizia, Gaga could not only make her relatable to herself, but relatable to audiences everywhere.
