Bradley Cooper had a 'crazy' meeting with Beyoncé and Jay-Z while casting A Star Is Born .
Cooper, who made his directorial debut in 2018, originally wanted Queen Bey to play the role of Elle, which eventually went to Lady Gaga.
He revealed in a recent interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that he recommended Beyoncé to studio executive Greg Silverman, who said that if Beyoncé was cast in the lead role , he would agree to make the movie and they could "make it for under $25 million."
From there, Cooper played Jackson Maine in "Jackson Maine." In the movie, she's tasked with inviting her to join a meeting at the "Poker" singer's home.
"I remember, I went to Beyoncé's house and Jay-Z was watching 'Judge Judy .' I'm not kidding. I was freaking out. I remember when I was pitching it to her, I had this weird cough, "He said. "It was crazy. She was incredible, he was incredible, and we developed it together for about a year," he continued, ultimately saying that it "failed."
Cooper also revealed that watching Lady Gaga perform live at a benefit concert was the moment he found his leading lady.
“It just blew the doors off the whole place,” he recalled in a SAG-AFTRA interview. "That's when I was like, 'This is it. What the hell was I thinking? And then I asked to see her."
Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) took on the role and helped make the 2018 musical a critical and commercial success. Cooper and his co-stars were both nominated in multiple categories at the 2019 Academy Awards, with Gaga taking home the Oscar for Best Original Song for "Shallow."
Another singer was considered
Queen Bey and Monster Mom weren't Cooper's only co-stars. Speaking at the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 8, the actor revealed that he "had Adele in mind" when casting the film.
"It's like, he didn't have a great career. He went abroad," he said, revealing how the plot of a film starring Adele might play out. “He met this woman and didn’t — and then it never happened again.”
