Lady Gaga Needed a Psychiatric Nurse While Filming This Role
Method acting isn’t a new concept in Hollywood. While it gets results and helps actors win awards and deliver convincing portrayals of their roles, it can have damaging effects. Lady Gaga seems to have taken a page out of the book with her role on the recently released House of Gucci to play Patrizia Reggiani. As effortless as her portrayal was, it came at a high cost. Lady Gaga reportedly needed a psychiatric nurse on set while filming the role.
Lady Gaga played the antagonist in ‘House of Gucci’
Gucci is a pretty recognizable brand in high fashion. However, not much was known about the private lives of the family members until Scott Ridley decided to do a movie giving explicit details about what happened and how Gucci became what it is today.
The film takes place in 1978 when an attractive young Patrizia works at her father’s small trucking company. She meets the socially awkward heir to the Gucci empire Maurizio and aggressively pursues him, charming him into falling in love with her. However, Maurizio’s father can see through Patrizia’s lies and warns his son against marrying her, even threatening to disinherit him.
Maurizio chooses Patrizia and takes a job at her father’s company. When Patrizia becomes pregnant, she sees it as a window of opportunity to get back into the Gucci family. She lets it slip to Maurizio’s uncle Aldo about her pregnancy. Aldo becomes excited and takes the young couple under his wing.
Before Rodolfo dies, he and his son reunite, writing Maurizio back into the will. However, he doesn’t transfer the 50% shares to him, but Patrizia forges Rodolfo’s signature giving Maurizio the shares. Maurizio shows no interest in the company, but Patrizia forces him into taking an active role. She also meets up with the rest of the shareholders, Aldo and Paolo, to try and get them to sell their shares to her and Maurizio.
Paolo, however, cuts ties with them. After the Italian police attempt to arrest Maurizio for forging his father’s signature, he and his wife flee to Switzerland, where they meet Paola Franchi, Maurizio’s old friend. After an argument between Maurizio and Patrizia, he decides he is done with his wife trying to control him.
Maurizio begins an affair with Paola and orders his wife and daughter to return to Italy. He brings in investors but mismanages the company, which infuriates Patrizia. She hires a hitman who kills Maurizio in broad daylight at his residence after asking for divorce from Patrizia.
Lady Gaga said she needed a psychiatrist while playing the role
Lady Gaga has repeatedly said she immersed herself in the role to understand it fully, and it eventually took a toll on her. Talking to Variety, the singer said, “I brought the darkness with me home, because her life was dark.”
She noted the role affected her so much that she needed a mental health professional during filming. She said, “I had a psychiatric nurse with me towards the end of filming. I sort of felt like I had to. I felt that it was safer for me.”
The A Star Is Born actor admitted she doesn’t understand why she puts herself through such instances whenever she is filming a project. She, however, said that she has “a sort of romantic relationship with suffering for your art.”
Lady Gaga also gained weight for the role
Lady Gaga took drastic measures for her role, including speaking in her Italian accent for 18 months during filming. The singer also dyed her hair black because she found it almost impossible to talk in the accent as a blonde.
Furthermore, she decided to pack on some weight to portray her character’s rounded figure perfectly. As Insider notes, the star accentuated her figure by chowing down on extra portions of pasta and bread to gain weight.
