Lady Gaga & Lin-Manuel Miranda - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

[Music] all right Lady Gaga hi I'm good I'll ask the first question I'll get us started this is this is your first big movie this and I feel like you're someone who has created your own opportunities and created this incredible career so I guess my question is actually not so much what was it like but what was it like sort of trusting Bradley Cooper and what was that relationship like because when I watched the movie I'm just like wow you know I I just really trusted him instantly I mean we had an instant chemistry from the first time I met him when he came over to my house it was amazing and you know I just felt really ready at this point in my career you know I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a musician even though I was sort of doing both simultaneously as a kid you know and I trained a lot I went to the Lee Strasberg Institute and I worked at doing workshops at circle in the square oh yeah and I you know also Adler technique so you know I felt ready for this and then when I met someone that I felt really had such a strong vision like Bradley you know such an incredible collaborator I was like this is Ed this is the one and I just felt really ready and I felt so good about it I think that's what I feel when I watch the movie was like the incredible amount of trust and the thing that every movie tries to do and very few get right but I felt sort of coming off the movie in waves is like the trust between you two in the ease between you two I was like these people are falling in love in this movie and it really feels so genuine I mean what what happened like what did I'm curious as to how you you give over that trust and how sort of Bradley prepped you because he's a first-time director as well but he's obviously worked with incredible directors well you know at the end of the day the you know the way that I work as an actress is I have my like deck of cards No and I I feel like when now looking back on my career that I created all these characters for each of my albums yeah because I was not an actress and I wasn't in movies and I wasn't yet working on television like I did with American Horror Story so you know I created kind of this you know these characters for myself it was like the outlet for it yeah I would I created the star of my own movie that I was going to star in and that was it but with this particular situation you know Ali is really not like me at all and she didn't believe in herself she wasn't you know creating a character in order to you know get to the places that she wanted to go and she really gave up on herself and she was seeing in these drag bars to you know have one place as her musical outlet and but in terms of their love together you know that was real you know it became her over a period of time the the music that I was writing and working on for the film was being created simultaneously while the script was being written and the film was being cast as those were all written before you started filming yes somewhere and some were actually written while we were filming well so I like I would actually the the scene the scene in the cop bar yeah where I I knocked the guy out you know right after we shot that scene I went back into the Sprinter van and I was on my way home and I was writing this song what's the name of it the song from the wedding scene I don't know what love is yeah and that that ended up being in the film so you know it was very simultaneous and so you know the truth is that when I have created characters on my own through my music I have complete control but when you're dealing with a script right and all these collaborators in costume department and you know props Department and set design and lighting and producers you know you have to collaborate with other people and so I really kind of had to just take off all my makeup dye my hair bra go in there in this studio and start from vulnerability and start from nothing start from naked and the reason that I think it was so easy to fall in love with Bradley on camera was because of the people that he brought together I mean the the people around me the people around him the family that he built it was just so filled with trust that exact lies that you said that it just it makes it feel so easy you know and then what happens is is you take that deck of cards that has all of that you know information about you know trauma or you know alcoholic relationships and codependency and the the family dynamic of someone that's growing up with a you know a father or mother who has alcoholism you know you you kind of pull from that deck of cards and there's a sorcery that happens when you're off camera and then as soon as you get on stage or when you get on set and he starts a film and you sort of throw that out the window but you know that the alchemy will still be there and be with you and so that's that's what I think really happened I don't sing my own songs thank you [Music] why well cuz like almost every single person that I've come in contact with in the music industry has told me that my nose is too big and that I won't make it I'm interested to know for you you know because you did everything for Hamilton I mean that was all you and and in many ways I feel like there's a similarity between us yeah in that in doing what Mary Poppins like how difficult or different was that for you to be singing someone else's songs well so much of what you just said resonated with me particularly when it comes to trust and and collaboration you know I started writing musicals because I really wanted to be in musicals and I didn't see that many opportunities for myself I was like you get your reporter you can do to get Paul in a chorus line get Bernardo right and those are the shows that get done it's like Chorus Line West Side Story that's like oh god yeah and I I really started writing my first show in the heights because I I just wanted to write the kinds of roles I'd want to play and and Hamilton was a very similar deal it was like this is a 14 course meal yeah actor I get to fall in love I get to win a revolution I get to have an affair I get to die in it do like it's yeah all the things right right and and and creating that was an incredible joy but the impulse was born out of you know for me just like you said writing and acting it's the same thing the way your song is fed your acting that fed more songs on set they're they're two sides of the same coin you're you're putting on the character and when it feels honest you write it down right you know you just write down the true parts right and and then when you're acting it's that you know you're trying to get back to that impulse of being present and and so when when Rob Marshall came to me with this part and and this incredible opportunity it felt like the fruit of the harvest you know of the seeds I planted when I started writing write in the heights it was like oh I don't have to write the whole thing you know and and we did a lot of pre-production we had three months of pre-production on Mary Poppins returned that's more than Broadway shows get and so it was in a way it was it was a perfect first step for me because it felt like we were putting on a show you know it was like all right and previews accept your previews are so it felt similar the preparation process felt similar to putting on a Broadway show yeah totally totally and also Rob comes from theatre so you know he was an acclaimed choreographer director before he ever made Chicago and and so it was just a similar language and so I just felt very comfortable and and similar to what you said in terms of starting from naked and starting from vulnerability Emily Blunt actually gave me the best advice on the first day because it was it my head it was a yeah and he said she said Rob is paying more attention than we are he's not gonna move on until he's got what he needs right he's just not gonna move on until we've got it so your only job is to sort of give him everything yeah and and that's the gig it is the gig welcome to our show of shows it is my great honor to introduce this evening's renowned guest the one [Music] how do you find the difference between performing on set and and and when you when you're filming this movie and when you're on stage at Stadium to do a little of both we did but you know what's interesting is that you know like when I'm performing on stage with my music there's just like tremendous connection with the audience you know and as it's different every single night and you know you look out there and like I'll be in a different city but I'll recognize the same fans for years before that are still in the front row it's the same yeah it's it's just it's incredible and so you feed off of the energy in the room and it changes changes every night you know what what I found working on film was it was more that I was I was much more interested in being completely present with who I was communicating with yeah on camera and very acutely aware that it was important for me to forget that there were cameras around me because I'm not the I'm actually the type of actress that the director has to find me because I will not do this do this to make sure you do the shot or cheat out you know I I don't do that I really I really once we start to go I really am the I really was Ally you know so it's everything around me other than what is meant to be in the circumstances disappears and I actually I was I just wanted to say I was so astounded by your voice in Mary Poppins because it is so different from your voice and Hamilton and like I just was like how did he do that and people ask me that question and I know intrinsically how I do it but I I'm gonna ask you that question how did you do it well I mean this was the first time I'd ever really done like for real accent work you know and I know I pitch Hamilton very differently than I did you snobby and my first show in the height and I like you I know the difference is inherent and how just their tempo entering the world it's really I think of it musically I think of it like what's this guy's tempo right you know you let's the weather you see the walking down the street who's like this and you see the people who are like you know I temple is where I start and and for the accent work the joy of it was that was another way in that was just another way outside of myself and into somebody else and I had this amazing dialect coach named Sondra Butterworth and and it was at first it was like are we gonna deconstruct every word I say in this movie and what was way more interesting was actually just finding music you know so I was listening to Anthony newley I was listening to like 1930s like British Music Hall recordings and really just digging into alright if this guy is a lamp light or in the 30s he's from the East End of London like and just the music was the easiest what was he listening what he be listening to I listened to a lot of Billy Bragg and and it was really the music was the easiest way I was like oh got it you know it was it was so much fun - and then like learn about all this music I ever listened to before it was like a whole new so it was that was that was a really fun part of the process have you done Joe Clues you could grow a garden it that much soil and John yes just as filthy how do you know our names because she's Mary Poppins AQAP's may I show you look lovely as always do you really think so when you were writing these songs because like you said like you you wrote some of them before you started production how much rehearsal did you guys have and how much did that feed into this music we did not have much rehearsal time at all if any actually the the truth is that so when we started the sound track it was very important early on that you know Jackson developed his sound I mean that Bradley you know know what you want he wanted his sound to be and for me like I was like probably a very annoying gate keeper and I was like all I want to do more than anything is throw myself in front of any human being that tells Bradley what he should sound like in this film yeah and you know he knew he wanted to lower and drop his voice so he had been working with a teacher on that but he sent me a song that was submitted for film by Jason is bull called maybe it's time and that song set the tone so I knew I knew that Bradley loved this song so then when we went into the studio so that was like the Rosetta Stone yes it was the nucleus it was the nucleus and then he introduced me actually to Lucas Nelson Willie Nelson's son and Lucas was going to become Jackson's band so when we were working in the studio we were writing but I was writing from the perspective of going okay so this is a girl that's singing you know you know jazz tunes our cabaret tunes you know in a drag Club and you know she's singing the preamble of somewhere over the rainbow so she clearly knows a lot about theatre she loves music but when she meets Jack you know what happens to her and so how does that matter music yes so what I did was is I worked with a lot of wonderful writers because I wanted to have you know the force with me and not and not just be what I would have seemed as it just kind of fool I should take it on all on my own I wanted a lot of people's opinions so I worked with a lot of different wonderful writers um Hilary Lindsey being one of them Natalie hem be our enriched air Lukas Nelson as I mentioned I didn't work directly with Jason this book but he sent us that song and Dave Cobb also worked with us on some production for always remember us this way and then I wrote shallow with Mark Ronson and Anthony Rosamund Oh and Andrew Wyatt so basically what we did was I put this music that these songs you make demos you make songs and then we filtered them through Lukas Nelson's band because that was Jax's band so that I knew because she would be on tour with him at some point that this would be her sound so that's how I sort of navigated the process of how she her sound would begin and and also that's really how she would change you know and often in I have found alcoholic relationships that there's taking on of the identity of the one that you're with it's a way to bond it's a trauma bond so I knew that that she would want to kind of become a part of him in a way so that's how that started and then when she meets rez in the film and he introduces her to you know these more commercial songwriters and I'm sorry producers I knew that I wanted to drastically change and I knew that I wanted this to be a challenge for her and this was exciting because you know we were sending songs you know you know back and forth Bradley would send me songs that he wrote for Jackson and I would send him songs that I wrote for Ally or songs that I'd written for Jackson and he would come in and write on those songs and it was it was just a very interesting collaboration because what ended up happening was that the the the music became a character in the film because it's actually not a musical it's a movie about musicians that has music in it and so I was so interested watching Mary Poppins because I was thinking wow this is so different because you know when we break out into the song into song and in the film it's because we are singing on stage right and a parking lot or or in a parking lot right exactly but when you guys break into song you know I was noticing all the little nuances in the film like the wind was blowing in the park and there with the leaves were flying and it's magical and then the man's top hat like flips back and it flips back you know and then someone starts to sing and it's almost like you have to break into song and you have to break into song in that moment because you can't say it simply with words so right I I just found that very interesting yeah it's I mean I always say Rob Marshall was sort of born in the wrong era he would have been at home like making MGM musical an Italian Fred Astaire because he has that thing you know I think it's I think when we go into a theater to see a musical we just suspend our disbelief or like they're gonna break into song and like we're here for it yeah it's like full stop it doesn't and and you can tell you know you'll hear an inappropriate laughter if like this transition into the song wasn't very smooth or really jarring and it's a higher threshold in movies because we're here right you know the cameras here right you know for someone to break into song you've got to be really smart about yeah you do it so that it doesn't feel like it doesn't pull the audience but I noticed that in Mary Poppins that like I noticed in the songs there was one in particular when you were singing about the the Liri yeah and you were singing about the lights right but I noticed that as he placed things down and as you bow your eye I could hear the foot go down I could hear you know the Hat hanging on the on the on the side of the lab okay like ever and I wondered actually if you guys had recorded those pieces live or if those had been put in later I think those were later because I when I saw the movie for the first time last week actually and like just seen this movie and what knocked me out because Rob again he rehearses it like it's a show so that big dance sequence around all the lamps yes we did that as an eight-minute continuous number there were like cuts between each dance movie it was like you rehearse it like you're doing the show in front of a live audience right and then he just has 20 cameras on it and he gets the best off that's so that's sort of how we did it except we didn't rehearse before I mean the only rehearsal time that we had was when we sang the songs in the studio recording them in prep for the the the movie but actually we sang live every single time yeah and we did it with earwigs so that we could hear the recordings but that you would get a completely clean vocal on the mic and then we would just shoot over and over again a continuous take so that he would have you know different things to pull from we it was interesting Rob's whole thing is its it just got a feel as natural as possible and so we would there were some sections that are live like the beginning of that light song while I'm walking that's all live because it's such a he's setting the tempo yeah and we realize like if we put a click track on this like it's not gonna work just invite them in start the song right we will get it amazing but then they were saying there was a great sequence where I'm biking in from st. Paul's Cathedral huh let's try a live take and that the lyric is underneath the lovely London sky and I we didn't factor in the cobblestones so it was underneath the lovely London school yeah that's so cool I love that yeah so there was lots of fun stuff like that [Music] you mentioned the one that is the earworm is that maybe it's time to let the old ways I mean I it makes so much sense to me that that's the nucleus of the tune because also even the lyrics feel like it's tangentially about them and about capacity for chained or not to change 100 percent I mean it and particularly for Bradley's character I think you know with with addiction and and the fact that he was battling that you know throughout the film you know it's maybe it's time to let the old ways die you know it takes a lot to change a man hell it takes a lot to try yeah maybe it's time to let the old ways die mean that that really was the nucleus for the soundtrack and we're very grateful to Jason it's both for writing that and giving it to us and he's a really cool songwriter he's one of those guys like he writes the song and he sends it to you and you know I'll be like hey can we just change this one note they like it this is the song right and but what was awesome is that we got to really draw from that and you know shallow shallow drew from that yeah as well because I feel like it's yeah because what what it set the stage for was a conversation right and what I love about shallow in the film is that there you know he he surprises her with the first verse of the song you know when she comes on stage right but you know when they're writing in the parking lot she's singing to him this is a conversation between a man and a woman and he actually listens to her and I think we live in a time when this is something that's really important to women women want to be heard yeah and it's it's been kind of shocking and amazing to watch people latch onto that song so much because it's it's I feel for me as an artist maybe one of the most authentic things that I've written and I feel I I feel very like humbled and grateful about that night and again like I have to throw it back to the team you know everybody from you know catering to grips to you know to Bradley to the producers you know everyone everybody was you know interested in getting to the most truthful and honest places that we possibly could it's so funny that you sort of mentioned listening because that's what struck me the most about that parking lot scene right there when they're writing that is it's actually not the takes of the two of you singing it's the way Bradley listens to you the way you listen to him when he's telling his story that's those are the moments and so we really see that which is so strange but I just I remember being like wow really listening to each other well that's what's so meaningful you know to me to me also about people reacting to this film is that like you know it's it's relatively and it's not low budget but it's relatively low budget and in the scope of you know how much money has put into films nowadays and yet it's had this commercial success and it's it's just kind of like really beautiful because I know that it's connecting with every single person completely differently and and that is really a special thing yeah I started writing this song the other day maybe that could work because of chorus or something the first number we shot for Poppins I was coming off a Hamilton and the first time we filmed was the animated sequence it's it to me and and an Emily and we've got the hats and we're imagining penguins around us but they'll be there later they'll draw them later and the first time that's interesting so there was no placeholders there there were in some shots we would have we had dancers who were holding up cardboard penguins uh-huh there didn't like green massive like American Horror Story latex man like just one green spandex and they're holding the Penguins and the first time we got through it you know four minute sequence and we do the whole thing and I climb the steps and like the crews like yeah take five right the cover is not the book yeah I love that song okay so can we move on you know so and awe and suddenly the applause is gone and and so the fun for me was realizing all right well what's the adrenalin source cuz I get which adrenaline from the audience when I'm performing in Hamilton or in a show that connection you're talking about you know who's in the front row you know what's the energy that's because this a matinee energy is this like people had this date circled in blood energy right and absent that how do we do these musical numbers not so much scenes but the musical numbers and for me the the adrenaline source became we're never gonna be here again you know and reminding myself of that like we're not coming back to Buckingham Palace to like ride our bikes yeah like and and so that's you know it became this like that was that's what fueled it and and that notion and I feel like I can see it in the movie this notion of like never gonna be in front of these people with these guys holding up penguins and that became the charge right for me in terms of performing about you you know it was it was such an interesting experience because for Ally you know she had not been on stage before and this is the first time for her so this was I love that close up it's just clothes on you as you're making the decision to go like that's really one of the most thrilling sequences in the film thank you you know for me in in that sequence in particular you know what I drew from and I I don't like to draw from things during the filming time yeah I'd like to draw from my deck of cards of all my experiences and my sense memory and my as ifs and everything I draw from that before I like to do my sorcery yeah before I get to set but for that you know what was interesting is that I was like oh well this could actually be quite simple I've never been a lead actress in a movie before so I'm walking onto stage and I'm walking onto stage with Bradley Cooper this huge incredible film actor so this is brand-new so I was able to kind of put myself in that circumstance a little bit more simply like and just kind of be there and be actually afraid and it was it was funny because he was so kind he asked a lot of my fans to be extras for the scenes where there were fans in the audience that's great and so you know Shelley our our first ad who is incredible and amazing who I love so much she would like you know come out and she would speak to everybody and she would say whatever you do please do not hold up any Lady Gaga's eyes because you're like a Glastonbury or you're like at a festival right and if you have a cowboy hat please make sure it's not pink because that looks like Joanne and please do not scream Lady Gaga if you want to yeah yay laughter please yellow ally you just like you feel letting go and they're all going like okay okay exactly but it was it was it was thrilling for me because I got to do something I have wanted to do my whole life which is being an actress and I I got to do it for real and I got to do it without all the armor that I've put on for many years like for me like I view a lot of the characters that I've built through my music as sort of an escape from my trauma trauma from childhood trauma from you know mid adulthood you know and sort of like shape-shifting so that I could share that the bad and move into a new but with Ali it was totally different I had to take it all away and so I had to be in Ali's trauma you know but without all that armor but something about acting knowing that my fans were in the audience it was quite exhilarating for me I had to forget of course that they were my fans out there but before I went on stage to win them over in a weird way yeah I had to win them over but but before I went on stage I would go like my fans are out there and they're watching me act in a movie and that is my circumstance my circumstance is that I'm doing something I've never done before and then when I got out on stage then they become people that I do not know it becomes a stage that I do not know it becomes a world that I didn't understand in it everything had to flip very quickly and all I had to trust in was my ability to sing and hope that when I did sing that it would move people and that's all that Ali really hoped for so you know I guess what I'm trying to say is is you know although I feel like Ali's still inside of me and although I felt like I was in character like most of the time when we made the film there was also a moment of switching for me because I had to sort of I had to witness myself creating that alchemy of what I would then bring onto stage and then stop thinking about because you know the camera catches everything you know it's like if you were thinking about feeling sad on camera you're gonna look like you're thinking about feeling sad you're not gonna look sad you know so you're my objective always as an actress is for it should be actually real you know and and and that's what I always found actually funny even about when I do American Horror Story is that that I has used to ask people I was like I wonder like if people will think I'm not acting because they think that I'm just like this like heinous blonde and and the countess was so evil and I'm I'm actually nothing like the countess except that I'm you know blonde and like makeup and fashion but you know so I guess what I'm trying to say is is you know there is that flip back and forth and yes there is that adrenaline but you were just talking about that's like really knowing where you are and what you're doing and knowing that it's not going to happen again and that you know the best thing that you can do is really be in the moment and be present and be the character and really like allow that character to live yeah give it life so I like I love so much having my fans be a part of you know being the extras when Bradley and I were filming and we were singing and they were in the audience and I know that you're very active on Twitter and that you have a relationship with your fans and so do I so I just was wondering about that because I also really admire that you love kindness as much as I do well yeah it's it's interesting because I think I you know I got on social media like anybody else did it was sort of I think the worst thing you could give me as an audience in my pocket just perform constantly yeah just okay hello good morning but uh but the fun of that was I really the closest thing I have had to a diary is Twitter while I was writing Hamilton it became a caffeine substitute for me Wow if I was up at 3 a.m. and I was knocking my head against a song I would be like hey everybody send me cute videos of cats I'm like trying to figure out what George Washington's gonna say in this moment I'm gonna be up all night writing and it I can look at tweets from 2011 2012 2013 and know where I was and what song I was working on it took me seven years to write that and then I think what happened was after Hamilton liked the follower count just went crazy and it became well what do I want to put into the world like I can't be on Twitter and like hate watch a show and tweet about it anymore because there will be an article about it and so it becomes what do you want to put into the world and once you have a platform yeah and and I think of it as a literal megaphone and and that swings both good and bad like you can bring light to issues that you care about deeply and if you use it 24 hours a day everyone ignores the crazy guy on the corner with a megaphone right you know you can you can tune that out right if you you know so if you use it sparingly and use it well it can be very effective in the things you believe in and so you know I make a habit of just saying good morning and good night I started that years ago just as a way clocking my own office hours sort of like a I'm not at 3:00 a.m. on Twitter I said goodnight already I'll see you in the morning morning this is sort of like me like I think of those Warner Brothers cartoons where the sheepdog and the wolf would clock in to work every day morning Sam good morning Ralph tweet-tweet in and but it's also just you know I think that I feel like I get more kindness back because that's what I choose to put out in the world and you I mean you're incredible on social media and the way you you rally your fans around causes that are important to you I mean you know that's that's an incredible thing incredible way to use your voice oh yeah you know I honestly just when I started to perform out in the clubs and I was I mean doing like three shows and I like I nonstop tis traveling around the country I would look out into the audience and I would see my fans and I was like I'm pretty sure I'm looking at myself yeah I'm not positive because I'm not talking to you right now singing at you you know I'm performing with and for you but I'm pretty sure I'm looking at myself but Twitter for some reason at that time it gave me this opportunity to go like oh I am looking at myself you know like I always felt like an outcast always felt like a loser I always felt like I didn't belong I always you know just was a misfit and I'm not saying all that all of my fans are that way but there were so many of them that I couldn't ignore it and I then saw very quickly once my career started to take off that yeah like you said like there's this megaphone and what am I going to do with this megaphone because you know if you have one you should use it and you should use it for good things and I I work with my mom on the Born This Way Foundation and we do a lot of philanthropic work and it's you know all about empowering youth inspiring them to create a kinder and braver world and we do a lot of work around mental health and you know a bullying prevention and things like that I work with my dad on stuff too that's that's that's another thing we have in common so we work with our yeah I mean you know but what I have found with Twitter is is like it's like this awesome thing that we can use and it's also a toilet you know fully I mean it's like at the same time as being able to use your platform for good things there's also a lot of people that are using it for really bad things and it can be totally dangerous so I think the more that we like stick together and you know promote the kindness and promote good things happening in the world like I I usually don't like to do this because I feel like when you do charity work like having a camera crew with you or showing people I was like not me so that's the Catholic in me it's like it's not it's not selfless every Catholic myself right but like since the California fire is like I went to a shelter and the first time that I went you know I didn't take any photos with them for myself I did but I took photos with people that really didn't wanted them and then the second time that I went I was like you know I'm gonna post about this because you know I want people to know that you know it's important to do claim things and that you know it's it doesn't matter who you are you don't have to be me you can be anybody and you will lift people's spirits just people knowing that you care and you know it was really amazing to see the family and the community that was built within these shelters during this time I mean people are losing their homes or they don't know anything about their homes or their you know they can't reach their family members and and are scared that they're not around anymore so I think you know I think social media is one of those things that is the it's got the yang and the yang you know and it's like it's like I just want to always be on the side of kindness yeah and I think and I really admire about you that you are the same way you know like with okay music check like big movie you're incredible in it check thank you so do you ever want to do it shows a week on Broadway have you ever considered that check check I'd love that yeah oh yeah I mean that was my like that was my dream I mean I think I've seen rent probably thirty times well rents the one that got me writing yeah hey what was yeah I saw it for my seventeenth birthday and I always loved musicals but they never took place in the present I I was just lost my mind yeah when I saw rent and I I used to go you know when you go really early the $20 and you get the $20 tickets and like you stand in line and you put your name in and then they like call it like a raffle and like yeah they invented the lottery system yeah I know that I'm gonna get this you get to sit in the front row so he looks like right there like I'm like staring at Maury and it's just like belt and I'm just like I just want to be more and I remember that time you grew up and you did become Maury well I well you went so funny is that I went to cap 21 for at Tisch the School of the Arts for like a year and I was like being a bad girl and auditioning while I was in school which weren't supposed to do and I almost got cast in the domestic tour of rent as Maureen but I was too young and and then I quit school and decided to pursue a career in music because I was just I was wasn't giving jobs as an actress um but I I love Broadway I mean Broadway is I'm I mean I remember the first time I saw the Phantom of the Opera I almost fell over I mean I've seen it multiple multiple times and that musical doesn't it ever get old to me ever I mean it's just it's just incredible and I loved you know Sondheim and I loved Fosse and you know I I just I've always been a theater lover lover I mean I would I would absolutely do Broadway would you ever want to write for Broadway you ever want to write history yeah I I think I absolutely would I was really inspired when I went to Circle square the acting school when I was there I actually thought about writing a musical called circle in the square and having it like be about you know artists and actors and musicians and you know because that constant that idea of putting a circle in a square or you know trying to you know fit a square through a hole like that whole idea you know it just it just I always found that so interesting I remember I wrote one song for it but I don't remember it at this moment but um yeah that's something I would definitely love to do and I you know why I know I could do it is because for many years record executives told me I was too theatre to theatre yeah Oh like that's all they told me yes they were like they were like you the beautifully like an executive using theatre as a pejorative you know you're yeah yeah yeah I wish I had you in the room yeah I was just sort of sitting there going like what's wrong with loving theater yeah didn't Freddie Mercury love theater I call myself Chicago because of the song radio gaga yeah oh yeah I was I was I loved theater I thought theatrics and music was beautiful I was obsessed with David Bowie and I'm you know I I can't be sure but I can only be like slightly sure that he must have been obsessed with Leigh Bowery and you know and you just go like theater is just and performance art you know these things are just like incredible and I I always wanted them to be a part of what I was making so yeah I would I would absolutely yeah I and I actually kind of have an idea other than that other than that other than the circle in the square one I do have an idea for a musical that's just it yeah I want to hear more about that [Applause] [Music] D flat major well I love Mary Poppins growing up and I was like getting ready to watch your version of Mary Poppins and I was going like oh my god like what am I gonna do like I'm so in love with the first one what's gonna happen and I'm sure people felt the same way watching a star is born because it's been remade three times and there's fourth there's four versions of the movie and I just what I want to know is what was it like for you to play such a whimsical character after playing a after playing Hamilton because in that that character is so completely different yeah and you know the magic of Hamilton and then what modernity of it and the innovation of the music and everything it's so adjacent in a way not and it's not to say that because what I what I really loved about Mary Poppins was that it harkens back to fully old musicals like and I was like I was watching gonna thank God like this is awesome like yeah like there was never a moment in the film that I thought that the music came in and it took me out of the scene like it just like the magic all swirled into the song so I'm just I'm curious about for you what it was like to switch roles like that I mean beyond the dialect yeah beyond the the change in the way you were singing like what was it like to go from creating something that was completely yours working sports seven years maybe longer on something that was not necessarily whimsical yeah no I don't think Hamilton and whimsy in the hat like how did you do that and how did you make that transition and because I will tell you like there is no similarity to me like as like I was watching it like I was astounded by her performance I was going like wait that's him like it just you just completely transformed Oh thank ya I you know it's it's interesting the it gets back to what you were saying the I know that Rob saw something in me because he asked Emily to play Mary Poppins and he asked me to be in this movie to play this new character and we were the first two people on board and the the joy of that the joy of what I know about Jack the Lamplighter is that he's the only adult who understands that Mary Poppins is magic everyone else has forgotten even the banks children they're like Oh Mary Poppins you're back yeah we made up that those adventures right like they've they've written it off they've rationalized it and so all I know as an actress oh no you don't understand yeah and the magic is real and that was liberating and also very easy to access for me because I get to be fully aware of how special it is to go on every one of these adventures and you kids don't know yet but you're gonna find out and and and that was the thing that Rob kept talking about that this is Jack as an adult but he is he's the only one who hasn't lost touch with what it means to be a child and the fact that we're all poets when were children and that we all run rampant with imagination Richard I'm going through with my son now my son is four years old he is more imagination than I will ever have again because it's your birthright when you're a child right and it fades yes and so it was just tapping back into that and I you know my son was 2 when we moved to London for a year to make this movie and so I just had to look at him and and I had it well you know it was the the greatest day on set was when we filmed that trip a little light fantastic the day before we filmed it we had our last dress rehearsal and I put my son where the bank's children sit and he saw it in first person like you all see that big edited fancy version but he saw it as real and Daddy and 40 lamplighters right with you know all of the spectacle and the look in his face is all I was trying to get in my performance is that sense of imagination what was so incredible is that completely translated to me as well like that's right like I was washing it going of course kids are gonna love this but as an adult I loved it so much because it reminded me like wow you know as you get older things happen to you you know and and we change and our ability to dream somehow it just it doesn't mean we can't it just sort of rotates and changes the way that we dream absolutely and and the scene when you guys jump into the bowl to get it fixed and you become a part of the painting that is on the bowl I was thinking to myself wow you know as a child I would have looked at things like that and I would have been like oh I'm I'm riding in that carriage and that and it was exactly what I would have thought as a child and I had completely forgotten that that's how I would have felt as a child and that's what you guys gave me with this movie and then and you really were her wingman and you know because she's quite like it's like I like she she married comes to do her job and then when her job is done she leaves you know and you you really knew you really knew sort of like the the the Prophet save your life like aspect of Mary Poppins and you were really hurt her right-hand man and it just it was it was so special and I just what did it feel like working with her with Emily it was amazing she she had it I mean we did a so we did a week-long workshop with just the script I'm about half a year before we started filming really to kick the tires on the songs figured out and she walked in and it was there and she didn't watch the original movie oh she didn't know she I mean she had seen it as a child like we all have but she's years of active I didn't go back she went to the books and in the books like what's what's great about Mary is she an enigma she's vain she's a little vain she is imperious she's tart and yet she's totally selfless everything she does is for other people yeah and and and that's the magic of her performance is that when you watch it the second time you realize even things you didn't think we're part of the plan were part of the plan she's guiding the little one to take the pieces of the shares and use them on the kite she's guiding Jack to bump into Jane Banks and for them to fall in love it's not just the big mission this is all the sciences she's so sort of godlike yeah and you know we have that in common because Bradley and I did workshops before we started filming yeah we did one with Elizabeth Kemp we do dream workshop and then we also worked with Susan Batson and I went through the entire script and she was there on set with me every day but in the dream workshop that I did with Elizabeth Kemp I'll never forget it I was laying on the floor she said I want you to go back and you're in your mind and in your heart and your body I want you to go back to a time in your life where life blasted you so hard that you can't remember who you were before it happened Wow and it just made me sob and I was I was laying on the floor and I was sobbing and you know it goes back to your earlier question about trust you know that's what built the trust and I think I'm sure I can only imagine that must have built the trust between you and Emily as well it's just because when you when you're in that vent that depth you know I have this this theory that I've been actually taught by a great teacher who's a friend of mine and he talks about it's it's a theory in meditation that you know all of our worries and all the things that are swirling around in our minds they're the waves on top of the ocean but that in the center of the ocean when you dive deep down it's completely still mmm you know so what I think is so interesting is when you sort of you begin in the stillness and you begin in the depth and then you slowly rise with your partner you're with who you're in the scene with you slowly rise to the top and allow those waves to crash and see where they take you and it's different every time [Music] you

Channel: Variety

Views: 1,091,653

Rating: 4.9475846 out of 5

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, lady gaga actors on actors, lady gaga interview, lady gaga shallow, lin-manuel miranda interview, lin-manuel miranda mary poppins, lin-manuel miranda lady gaga, lady gaga variety, lady gaga therapy

Id: DETWRFWWlJI

Length: 52min 5sec (3125 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 04 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/mukzor]

It's a long interview but it's worth it! Such an insightful conversation