Lady Gaga has taken on many jobs during her decade-plus as an international pop star and actress, but one she’s always seen as a backup was that of a combat journalist.
In her latest profile in British Vogue, Gaga opened up about her new role in the upcoming film House of Gucci, eventually sharing that if she didn’t become an acclaimed actress and songwriter, she would’ve taken her talents elsewhere.
“I would have been a combat journalist. That was one of my dreams. When I was at the Capitol, the day before the inauguration, I remember walking around and looking for evidence of the insurrection.” — @LadyGaga to @BritishVogue 🔗:
What she was doing during Joe Biden’s January inauguration—which took place after the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol—should make her back-up career choice pretty evident, too.
“That has to be one of the proudest days of my whole life,” she said of singing for the president. “Like many people in America, I felt a deep fear when Trump was president, and ushering 45 out and 46 in is something I’ll be able to tell my children all about… Singing in a Schiaparelli bulletproof dress. I don’t know if people know this about me, but if I weren’t who I am today, I would have been a combat journalist. That was one of my dreams. When I was at the Capitol, the day before the inauguration, I remember walking around and looking for evidence of the insurrection.”
While Gaga doesn’t elaborate much on her statement in the story itself, she also goes into detail on what it’s taken for her to prepare for her role as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s upcoming film—including keeping to the same accent for nine months.
“It is three years since I started working on it,” she said, “and I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her 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.”
In preparing for the role, she revealed that while she never met with Patrizia or read Sara Gay Forden’s The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, which the film is based off of, she immedietly dyed her hair in order to work the accent. The film releases on Nov. 24, and also stars Adam Driver, Jared Leo, Salma Hayek, and more.
“I started to take photographs as well,” Gaga said. “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.”
