We are getting ever closer to the debut of what might be the most fashionable film in years, with the upcoming release of House of Gucci. Ridley Scott’s ripped-from-the-headlines crime drama stars pop icon Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani, who marries into the famed fashion family after meeting Maurizio Gucci (played by Adam Driver), eventually divorces him, and later is convicted of having him killed. The trailer revealed the awesome accent Gaga used for her portrayal, but it turns out that she stayed with those vocal stylings for a wildly loooooong time.
Many actors have been known to go above and beyond when it comes to making sure they bring their characters to startling life on camera, especially when the people they’re playing actually exist in real life. While it makes a ton of sense that Lady Gaga would fully take her work as Reggiani seriously, she recently told Vogue UK just how long she stuck with her Italian accent for House of Gucci, and said:
I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her [Reggiani] for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that…Off camera. I never broke. I stayed with her.
WOW. A year and a half is a long time to “live” as someone else, people. Particularly if an actor sticks with their character in their daily life, and not just when specifically working on the movie. Even though we already know from A Star Is Born and American Horror Story that Lady Gaga can act, this certainly shows her dedication to making sure that she fully embodied Reggiani and made “the performance about a real woman,” as she says later in the interview.
Gaga didn’t mention this, but I can’t help but wonder if she took some tips from one of her co-stars, Jared Leto, who has been known to (supposedly) get up to some shenanigans in the name of inhabiting a dangerous character, so that his performance feels as real as possible. The entertainer also noted that those of us who watch House of Gucci, and are very perceptive, will be able to hear the shifts in accent (all of which were praised by co-star Salma Hayek) she employed to capture the differences Reggiani’s voice would have taken on as she became more and more embroiled in the Gucci lifestyle, as opposed to how she would have sounded originally.
As you might imagine, Gaga’s prep work for the film didn’t end with her accent. Apparently, part of her living as Reggiani also entailed some character work that saw her altering her looks and how she interacted with the world:
It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde. I instantly had to dye my hair, and I started to live in a way whereby anything that I looked at, anything that I touched, I started to take notice of where and when I could see money. I started to take photographs as well. I have no evidence that Patrizia was a photographer, but I thought as an exercise, and finding her interests in life, that I would become a photographer, so I took my point-and-shoot camera everywhere that I went. I noticed that Patrizia loved beautiful things. If something wasn’t beautiful, I deleted it.
Seeing as how Lady Gaga didn’t speak with Reggiani to prep for the role (which did not please the former Gucci family member), it seems appropriate to connect some dots on her own after reading all she could about her and watching footage. All in all, it seems like we’re going to be in for a serious treat when House of Gucci opens on November 24.