Lady Gaga's '9-month romance' with Gucci role

LONDON • American pop star Lady Gaga brought her star power to London on Tuesday for the premiere of House Of Gucci.

She said she stayed in character for nine months to play the wife of a murdered heir to the Italian fashion dynasty.

Directed by Ridley Scott, the movie, based on the book of the same name, features an all-star cast, including Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Irons, in a retelling of the notorious murder case which shocked Italy and its fashion industry in the 1990s.

Donning an Italian accent, Lady Gaga plays Patrizia Reggiani, who married into the Gucci family in 1972 when she wed heir Maurizio Gucci, played by Driver in the movie.

Reggiani and Gucci divorced in 1994. A year later, Gucci, 46, was shot dead by a hitman outside his Milan office.

Reggiani spent 18 years in jail for orchestrating his murder and was released in 2016. She is now 72.

Asked about reports saying she had stayed in character for 18 months, Lady Gaga said on the red carpet: "I really feel in some ways that my process has been sensationalised into something, but I don't like to lie about my work and my process.

"So what I will say is this: I'm a romantic when it comes to art. I had a romantic relationship with my character, Patrizia."

The 35-year-old singer added: "I had a romantic relationship with the script and I dove head first into this world because she's nothing like me...

"I don't know where 18 months came from. Nine months, yes, but double that, I don't know."

The role follows Lady Gaga's critically acclaimed performance in the musical romance A Star Is Born (2018), for which she won an Oscar for best original song for Shallow and nabbed a best actress nomination.

Leto plays Paolo Gucci, Maurizio Gucci's cousin, in House Of Gucci and is completely unrecognisable.

"Make-up and hair took about six hours," he said, adding that he had looked to Gucci's current creative director Alessandro Michele, among others, for inspiration for his accent.

"When you hear the voice, you can hear Alessandro in there too," the 49-year-old singer-actor said.

House Of Gucci begins its cinema roll-out on Nov 24.

REUTERS