Lady Gaga Says She 'Had Some Psychological Difficulty' Near the End of Making 'House of Gucci'

Lady Gaga says she went so deep into her character for House of Gucci that she began to lose touch with reality

Photo: Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc.

Lady Gaga's upcoming role in House of Gucci took a toll on the star.

The singer and actress plays Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott's upcoming film, which follows the real-life figure as she hires a hitman to kill her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). Gaga posed for the cover of British Vogue's December issue, on newsstands Friday, where she spoke about diving deep into the character.

"I had some psychological difficulty at one point towards the end of filming," Gaga said. "I was either in my hotel room, living and speaking as Reggiani, or I was on set, living and speaking as her."

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"I remember I went out into Italy one day with a hat on to take a walk. I hadn't taken a walk in about two months and I panicked," she said. "I thought I was on a movie set."

Gaga told the magazine she'd been working on her portrayal for three years.

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"I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her (Reggiani) for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that," she said. "Off camera, I never broke. I stayed with her. It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde. I instantly had to dye my hair, and I started to live in a way whereby anything that I looked at, anything that I touched, I started to take notice of where and when I could see money."

The movie chronicles the aftermath of Maurizio's death after Reggiani hired a hitman to kill him in 1995.

Reggiani, now 72, served 18 years in prison and was released in 2016, but she still contends she was wrongfully convicted. In the 2018 special People Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion, she said, "I am not guilty, but I am not innocent. All the things that happened were a misunderstanding."

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On Monday, Gaga spoke to The Wall Street Journal, where she discussed her new album Love for Sale with legend Tony Bennett and how she got into character for her cinematic follow-up to her Oscar-nominated performance in A Star Is Born.

"I knew I was about to play a murderer. I also knew how Tony feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime. I wanted to make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature," said Gaga.

"I felt the best way to honor Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman. Not an Italian-American woman, but an Italian woman," she added.

House of Gucci also stars Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Reeve Carney, and Jack Huston.

The film debuts in theaters on Nov. 24.