“When I met her, I thought, ‘If I can just harness that … then it’s just for me to mess up,'” he recalled. “But then, when we started working together, I realized, ‘Oh, oh, the sky’s the limit in terms of what she’s able to do and her commitment level.'”
The actor also addressed the romance rumors that were sparked as a result of the movie and his unforgettable 2019 Oscars duet with Gaga, during which they sang their award-winning song “Shallow” while sitting cheek-to-cheek at a piano. Denying the speculations, Cooper explained that the pair had decided to bring their onscreen act to the Academy Awards stage simply to help reduce his anxiety of performing in front of a live audience.
He said that they “kind of fell in love” in that film scene. “It’s that explosive moment that happens to them on a stage in front of thousands of people…It would have been so weird if we were both on stools facing the audience.”