Lady Gaga & Jamie Lee Curtis | Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

Oh Ryan Murphy we wouldn't be probably sitting here we probably might not know each other although we just found out we have a mutual friend but we might not know each other we're it not for him and I remember when he told me that you were doing that show with him and he was so thrilled and was that the vibe you got from him from the moment like how did it happen did he did he actually call you or did it go through no I called him I wanted to talk to him about doing the show and doing that show yeah about doing Horror Story I love the show and I wanted to get into acting you know after years of not doing it and I never got a job as an actress when I was in New York so I moved on to music it was the job in music yeah I got a job in music but a great job that I love so much but I missed being an actress in it because I loved studying acting and I loved a theater and I loved being with actors and working with actors so I told him I wanted to you know do something on this show and then he said yes he was so excited right away and it ended up being a wonderful amazing role and a you know huge partnership with him in all of you now well so here's the question really um and and you know I've your fans around the world may get very angry me and send me dead things and they better not um is Gaga a character meaning I'm asking because Elton John is like a doting dad of babies and seems to like gardening and riding around on a nice boat like is it a construction for you to be able to perform as that because it your name is Stephanie and I even asked today am I going to like where is that within the work you do because obviously the countess wasn't my obvious will you know that I'm not like the countess because you know me in real life you know I guess the thing is is that what I am as Gaga really is at this moment what other people think GOG is it's not necessarily what I am entirely because even if I feel like Gaga you know meaning this stronger individual person of myself that I discovered being young in New York loving music meeting with young artists working with musicians with writers studying this scene and being involved in the lifestyle I started to call myself GOG after people called me Gaga and it was the sort of nickname that I had for me at my best but it's a bit of a creation though and so long is a bit of a creation but I think actually at this point now it's other people that have created through what I have made their perception of what Gaga is as a separate entity from me but being an actor is obviously being you yes I'm not gonna when I'm on when I'm playing a role right so for me I am less and less interested in pretending to be other people older I get right I am much more interested in being Who I am but when I was younger so what does that mean for you as an actress well I'm you talked about studying and that the okay when we just sat down we made a joke about Robert Durst and you said that you had studied his wife I don't know him both of them for the countess yes now how much of that is how much of that process do you talk about do you include other people in how much of it is just your process because ultimately at the end of the day whatever happens on the screen it is a collaboration between writing wardrobe props people technician right and then your work yep so what I would say is is what I at any given moment is some sort of amalgamation of my self Stephanie the young Italian American girl from New York that's an actress and a songwriter and rebel and another part of me is what I'm creatively interested in at the time with music and how that culture and lifestyle and the art that arose out of that is influencing me as I'm sort of reading it and writing music and then if I'm playing a character at the same time is that I also and that as well so I live a lifestyle of sort of endless relentless love for making my work and that in every way informs me as a person all the time so it's a quite difficult thing for me to answer because I am I am entirely Stephanie and I'm entirely Gaga but I'm also was entirely the countess when I what you did research yeah I did research and the research that I did was all the time every day I would watch a Robert Durst in the jinx and his wife Deborah Durst and I would sort of you know study this sort of practical nature in which he was devious and evil you know it's like well you know I wrote it in block letters because the block letters nobody who did their just block letters nobody can tell what they are you know and he's just has this extremely practical way of explaining how he's going to conceal the fact that he's you know dumped a body in a river and kept it in his house and and cut up his best friend you know but when he's explaining to you what oh it was I was drunk and I was high and I thought what am I going to do with this body I got to cut it up you know it's like it's like I had to go to the store I was gonna make a sandwich oh I had to get the bread and then I had to pick up the ham I mean it's so kind of practical so I let that inform me as the countess because I naturally if I was going to take a guy home and [ __ ] him and then eat him you know I wouldn't know exactly you know how did we join we know well I know what order I might have and I'm for the countess though that you know that order is debatable right because she's sort of into that like necro romance as well necromancy so you know I had to really kind of inject that total functional nature of life into being a killer and that's just naturally not what I am so but during that time you know I became a lot more wild and crazy and matter-of-fact about things and and and who I am as an artist and person change so I guess I I don't know how to fully answer your question because I'm all you doing no but you did I was afraid you think this was too much oh you mean the dress that night out on the town this nightcap you know a gay I'm not stupid we're destined for something much more intimate I was once on the jury the Cannes Film Festival and I remember feeling that I had to be smarter and better uh then I was somehow being surrounded by this tremendous amount of talent being writers and directors and filmmakers and actors and fashionistas and and I I felt very little and and insecure and I ran into Terry Gilliam who is a filmmaker and very interesting guy and I remember talking to him there and he said asked me what I was doing I said well I really feel like I should be doing more and I should really be focusing and much more serious about my work and he looked at me he said why don't you stop trying to be such a [ __ ] good actress and just do what you're good at yeah and there was something so freeing where I don't have any skill set I never studied really I studied with an acting teacher once who worked with him I went to his house Alan which fantastic actor and teacher and I remember we did a scene i sat opposite him like we are we finished it and he looked at me and he said okay well you know how to be other people so now your entire job is read study art listen to music take photographs I'm a photographer you know immerse yourself in art you know how to pretend to be somebody else because pretending to be somebody else has never been difficult for me right that's why I think I was asking about that character of that performer because I used to play secretary at my house and have our long sessions well there's something easier about that you must have been in some way like felt so liberated by being the secretary there was something about it that it could get a sense it feels like somehow it was easy for me was a pejorative that it shouldn't be easy and of course there are tremendously talented actors who who I revere who rip their guts out every time they work and the work is extraordinary but they're also extraordinary people who just get up in the morning go do their work well god bless you well this for me it's immediate to that easy that to me the only goal for me is to be in some sort of a flow where I'm not in my head yeah if I had to learn something technical for a job I've learned the technical side of it and then forget about it and then at some point when I pull the gun it's going to look like I know how to pull a gun because I've learned the technique the rest of it I am I know rappers can rap you know very freely and I feel like when I work that's what I'm doing I know that's gonna be like hmm I hate sororities and I hate you for years I've seen the damage these so-called sisterhood have had on young girls do you think you like to munch box because your last name is munch or is that just a coincidence first of all I'm not a lesbian Ryan's like he always we used to always talk about that I mean Ryan Murphy Ryan Murphy we would talk about that on set because that's how I I really understood how to be a an actress on film and just in general I mean even though I would I've done theater and stuff you know it was like I had to really go okay I need to I was doing the opposite of what you just said I said okay I need to go back to my my skillset to my technique in Stanislavski and Strasburg I need to go back to sense-memory and that was a process I threw the sense-memory out after like a couple weeks because it wasn't working in the same way and then I found it again so like I rehearse things actually in a totally different way but then I slow them out once I get to set so I'll rehearse in my trailer for example like if there's one moment in the scene where I'm supposed to cry right I'll rehearse the like the thoughts that I need to have in order to feel in that moment or have the thought that will then maybe inspire me to cry so I have to plan out the thoughts I'm going to have and then I rehearse that and sometimes I cry and sometimes I don't and then you go to set and you as long as you have your line sound and just like throw it out the window I did that I'd already and then it's just me and Matt Bomer because I watched every episode of your show with Ryan Murphy American Horror Story hotel Calista JB I'm gonna get something my trailer in the diner um and I noticed that I didn't feel like there I was I didn't feel like I was watching someone with technique I didn't I didn't I didn't see it and I think you can see it in some work and then of course there are people like Sarah Paulson who you just your jaw drops it's unreal or Laurie Metcalf yeah your jaw just yeah your what yeah and being a war King listen I mean I can't wait to work with you I haven't got to work with you yet I think I hopefully will get to well I'll talk to Ryan Murphy um about making that happen on maybe scream queens shooting in Los Angeles thank you God sorry I like New Orleans I had a wonderful time we keep it with the nose grunts whoa no Robert Durst you know hoster he starts to tell he starts burping I know that little thing that he did die by the way my husband I said how come there isn't a female character who does that yeah who just sort of Burke I didn't want to steal it I didn't want to steal it so amazing yeah but I know but but I didn't want to steal it I should have still I would have loved it what I wanted to ask you yes Lady Gaga is that how do you get through a scene when for me if I'm in a scene and I'm put myself there and I'm in that moment there is not one time when I'm in that scene where I should be ever thinking about if I'm doing a good job or not right because I'm just you know right in there but when that happens and you get just so tired or the hours get so late that it's almost just impossible not to be aware of the fact that you're shooting what do you do it does that mean I'm not getting it when that's happening or am I still getting it well my experience will tell you that it's probably you're getting it better because people will often I watched and I watched golf I play golf now I watch golf with my husband we're married for a long time we watch golf together and I'm gonna get there about the golf yes okay super fun my nickname is that I'm not ready for the gold um but a golfer won last week and he was sick and he had had he'd been battling a flu a week and people talked about it all week and he said you know somehow because I was sick and wanting to do a good job and I'm more focused on it than I normally am he won I think when you when you're tired or when you feel like maybe it's not happening is when it's really happening and the great thing is it's not your job to know you know for someone like here so is it's a two-man set yeah yeah but it is it's the gift he gave you because you are the master mistress of your life crafty you know your craft your creation your music your art you are the mistress of it right and there's not a hair that moves that you don't on some level control right being an actor you have to let go of it and so ultimately the greatest gift is letting go and when you're tired or the hours have gotten ridiculous that's when in fact you have to ultimately trust because it's a trusting collaboration you have to trust the director or the creator Ryan Murphy or the actor but we don't you know ultimately how many actors have you met who after we do this we'll go back to the director and say um were you close on me when Gaga was tucked where we're starting to think in the middle of it who are they are they on me at this moment so or we know we know but I take - better than take and when you're mentally there somehow that's not our job yeah and I've learned it over the years to just sort of leave the work in on the set yeah leave it with the other people and and feel like as long as I was the open creative person that I'm supposed to be today whatever today if you have a chance read Marilyn Monroe's last published interview where she talks about feeling sick that you can't you know in art you know now she was notorious for being sick of course a drug addict and very late to the game you know she was always very late and all these pejoratives were always attached to her but what was amazing about her was she said what other art form do you create on a schedule what other art form any art form writing photography where you say we are going to shoot the love scene between Gaga and Jamie on Friday at 10 o'clock they are going to create that thing and what if it's not there what if that moment of creation isn't happening right in in our business unless you have a director who has a lot of money and time and he can go back to it you have to and so it's a forced creation and there's a team of people creating that moment and when you see a moment in a movie that is so staggering you realize the amount of dance that has created that forced creation moment it really it always humbles me and makes me understand how much I love a great performer when all of that can happen and then by the way as you know if you're going to shoot that scene between us here or shooting it wide right now but you know and I know we're going to come back to it an hour and a half from now and we're going to come in and just all the energy is going to be on you cameras are going to be on you the light is going to be on you you're gonna have to recreate what happened between us right and if it's emotional or if it's physical or if it's violent or if it's whatever it is it is the astonishing thing about being an actor different than being a musician where there are those moments that happen and it's extraordinary and because you're newer at it and I'm older at it I'm really going to look forward to watching when you get to do that more and more and more and thank you no I appreciate that because that's for me what this was all about is I just wanted to begin the process you know nice begin thank you thank you I don't beginner adult big thank you I got oh I moved up in class Davy's you do I don't know I mean I was a I mean it no beautiful beginning but it's true it nobody it's it's something that is you know I guess I would I would like harken it to working with a musician and writing a song together you know where you you're in a room together and there's literally nothing there but two people and a bunch of instruments and all of a sudden you look up and it sounds like a record that you've heard a million times and it's that magic moment and that focus and that passion and that intention that ability to give at a given moment in order to create that explosion it's beautiful art it's beautiful but you know I just have to say that you know you and your underwear dancing in that bedroom in True Lies was my favorite scene like in a movie for a very new and very long time can you imagine I mean how all I did the day I got that job was call and find out how many weeks I had before I had to do that yeah of course of course and it was only like - yeah but but I tell you as a young woman it made a major impact on me because you are so strong and so sexy but so not in a way that's owned by men or you know it was so kind of fearless yeah then you know that that movie in that scene particular God took a big hit because it was manipulated by men there were there was a bit of a backlash that he would force that on his wife that he would force that now I think she took full ownership of it and I loved watching her take full ownership and believe me I will tell you this Jim Cameron is a very talented man James Cameron the director of True Lies is a very talented man he wrote that is very funny script he can do every job on a movie better than any crew person ever could do there's one thing he cannot do and that's act and dance and so you would say he loves actors and so I felt the love of his right like I trusted that he he I trusted that he trusted that I could do this right and do whatever it is that came to me yeah but he can't dance and so there was no rehearsal none he had no idea what was going to happen none of us did he had a camera like that you know on a dolly there were hundred people in the room and it was truly there was that moment where I remember saying huh okay about to do this and what's about to happen and then let it happen yeah and ultimately let her own it lint roller totally did at the beginning of course she's not yours very nervous yeah but it but but I mean it was good it was so good and I and I I mean I had I mean it was so good and it's it's my favorite I think you know in terms of look you know what was an amazing part it's I mean a love scene or whatever you would call it like that I mean for me I mean I think what how many love scenes that I do in the horror story 100 100 but I you know I took them really seriously and people would you know make jokes like oh what's it like for your family you know or your what you know your boyfriend is we do that have children I yeah well I said them I said you know what you you try to do that you try to have sex with someone that you don't know that well and you know or fake sex with someone you don't know that while in front of you know 30 people holding lights in a song covered in diamonds and a wig and then half to slit their throat drink there boy I mean I said it's it's it and make it look different every time I said because she's this woman's been alive over a hundred years you know she knows how to how to make love so I had to figure out how to each time make it different and make it interesting and also have her be completely in charge so I was you know you were also one of my the things that I studied Thanks I can't believe you turned him he's a stupid trashy model you we're a pathetic addict dying on a filthy floor I guess the question is the question that inquiring minds want to know is Fame now you're as famous person as I could ever imagine there being I just can't imagine there's someone more famous than you and you've been famous now for a long time my fame I was I was I'm obviously on a TV show now and so I'm somewhat the term would be ubiquitous I am I've done commercials for years and years and years utilizing my notoriety to sell products for companies it's I've done it's how I've supplemented my income but you've been famous as an artist for a very long time but you also it seems control your environment of that art very carefully and and with a lot of thought and with a good team of people and and people you trust yes yes do you so ultimately did that fame that you seemed to want it and got do you find it isolating is Fay my soul a ting for you it's isolating for me I don't I I mean I I mean I don't like it personally yeah I mean I don't think I could think of a single thing that's more isolating than being famous but yet we both sought it we didn't seek the we tell them oh and I know it's almost impossible for people even to probably even look at my career and the things I've done and think oh she didn't want you know of course she wanted to be famous of course she wanted all that attention you know that but you know it's just creative expression as what I am and I would have been doing this whether I became famous or not I still would be doing what I do I just what I'm saying is I wouldn't have given up to try to get famous in another way does that make sense no I just wanted to get a job being creative and I did and I think the hardest thing for me is that I love people so much and it is very hard to not be able to engage with people in a real and honest way because they want because they either want something from they want something or they see me as something that I simply am NOT I am NOT some goddess that drop down from the sky to sing pop music I'm not some extra incredible human person that needs to be told how wonderful they are all day and kissed and and told how incredible I don't need any of that truly my my purpose on this earth is to make people happy through and heal people through music that's what I am to do to create fantasies that allow people to not just escape but to see that there is the potential for magic in life and making them make social change with that large and that is and that is my true purpose is to choose what happened with that song thank you and that song in particular the same is the price for this I understand so the isolation of it yes it is hard it is and I mean I know it's hard for you too well but I but see I choose a very private life but my life is private now right and I see I I walk well if I say where I walk then they'll fall but I mean I walk alleys I go through I try to avoid it I try to I I try to avoid it and I roll wings now and I go out I go out without you know covering myself now which is really fun and super liberating and also kind of infuriating that I have to not be myself in order to have a good time but I think that it's important for people to hear from us that you know for us to be great at what we do you know I would love more than anything when I meet people to just have a normal exchange with them you know more than my picture - no but what they but that's what the problem is that it we've become digitalized we've become these it then you know the new version of the autograph is the is the selfie which is you know when I'm on selfie duty there's nobody better at taking them and I grab the phones out of their hands and like here bah bah bah bah bah but ultimately it it is and it's been talked about forever it is a piece of property there is some idea that that is some evidence that they have met you and taken a moment with you like taken digits and you know actually when you decide to take a picture do you realize the moment has just died oh of course it is you just killed it it was opening and then you stopped it well it's how many people in your concerts we're all it is is there just like this I see these pictures at concerts where everybody's just it's a moment of total disconnection because they're not they're enthralled to going on but they're not they have to yeah exactly are not having the moment of listening to you music now they're capturing this moment yes and that and and you know I just you know I I think that I hope through you know the more work that I do and the more that I create that I can you know be a part of changing that not just for myself but for you know other artists and that we can all you know support each other and you know changing Fame culture but as well and hopefully inspiring people to see that like we are real people that just love to me I don't know I think you can make the change in the culture the way you have with your art I don't think we can then kind of turn it back on itself and say we now need to change the actual fame culture I think you can change the song as an example of the the profound amount of change that can come from art I'm just I I think were I think in our lifetime somehow that's not going to change like a bet okay I'm Betty with Lady gaga national television you

Channel: Variety

Views: 907,864

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, lady gaga, lady gaga real name, american horror story, lady gaga amaerican horror story, jamie lee curtis scream queens, scream queens, actors on actors, lady gaga conversation, lady gaga interview, lady gaga bad romance

Id: SwwBKt_DUqE

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 07 2016