Bradley Cooper has revealed that he considered getting Adele to star opposite him in A Star Is Born.
Cooper made his directorial debut with the 2018 romantic musical drama, in which he played struggling country rock singer Jack opposite Lady Gaga‘s up-and-coming singer Ally.
At the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday, Cooper revealed that he had contemplating asking Adele to play Gaga’s role.
“I thought about Adele for a while,” he said, before explaining his thought process for how the plot would go with Adele: “It was like, his career’s not great. He goes abroad. He meets this woman, but no — and then that never even took off at all,” he said [via Stereogum].
It is also known that Beyoncé had been given the role but later had to drop out. “She was incredible. And we went down the road and then it didn’t work out. I remember I was so nervous. I had this weird cough as I was pitching it to her.”
Cooper had also previously considered Jack White for his own role.
Adele recently told Vanity Fair that she would be open to pursuing acting. “There is one movie I want to do, but the guy whose movie it would be, he’s not mentally ready to write the script for it,” she said.
“I bug him every now and then about it, but he’s just not there yet. But that’s the only role I ever want. Because I think I’d nail it. I think I’d do really, really, really good at it.”
Cooper went on to direct the new Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro and recently said that he directed in character as the late conductor, having been inspired by Christian Bale’s method in 2013’s American Hustle.
“American Hustle was the first time I saw an actor stay in the voice of a character,” he said. “It was Christian Bale. I had heard stories about Daniel Day-Lewis. I couldn’t figure out how someone could do that. Then I realised I was overthinking it.
“Christian just stayed in the voice, but we talked about his kids. It wasn’t like he saw an iPhone and had a heart attack. Ever since American Hustle, that’s how I’ve done it as an actor.”