Trivia / A Star Is Born (2018)

• Actor-Shared Background: Ally is Italian American, like her actress. Also, she performed in gay/drag clubs before her music career took off.
• Copiously Credited Creator: Bradley Cooper starred, directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film.
• The Danza: A last name (and almost first name too) example. Rez Gavron is played by Rafi Gavron.
• Deleted Role: Bonnie Somerville filmed a cameo, but her scene was cut.
• Deleted Scene: There was a scene where Ally overdosed on heroin but was later edited out.
• Disowned Adaptation: Barbra Streisand, star of the previous version, complained that it was too similar to her movie, while saying she'd have preferred the version that didn't pan out with Beyoncé because it would at least feature a different musical style.
• Dueling Movies: Against Vox Lux, another film about a female musical performer struggling to remain relevant in the music industry. Around that time was also Her Smell, also about a female musician, and also depicting a downward spiral due to substance abuse.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Lady Gaga (who's better known as a blonde) reverted back to being a brunette and wore less makeup to play Ally, though she dyed her hair red for the second half of the film in which her character begins her solo career.
  • Bradley Cooper had to undergo a full body spray tan everyday and endure menthol around his eyes to look bloodshot and high. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga remained bare faced with only a lip balm and moisturiser on majority of the filming.
• Enforced Method Acting: Lady Gaga revealed that the climactic scene where Ally sings the song "I'll Never Love Again" in honor of her late husband Jackson Maine was shot on the same day (even only a couple hours after) her best friend Sonja Durham passed away from cancer. Thus, Ally's grief and heartache during her performance are genuine.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: The majority of the drag queens' lines were unscripted and improvised.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Bradley Cooper had been sober for years when he played a man with a drinking problem.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Dave Chappelle's daughter Sanaa plays his onscreen daughter.
  • Charlie the dog is actually Bradley Cooper's pet.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Jackson struggles with alcoholism just as Bradley Cooper has.
  • Both the film and reality have Cooper introducing the world to a great new talent, as while Lady Gaga was already a tremendously successful singer, a lot of people had doubts about her acting ability.
  • Ally mentions that she had been rejected by record labels due to her appearance, specifically her large nose. Lady Gaga herself had been advised early in her career to get a nose job.
  • Ally's father in the film was imbued with real life aspects of Lady Gaga and her father's relationship. The scene when Ally talks to her dad about how many times he carried her piano up the stairs and sat with her while she wrote songs reflects the same genuine moments shared between Lady Gaga and her father.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally scheduled for a September 28, 2018 release before it was rescheduled to May 18, 2018 in September 2017 and was ultimately rescheduled to October 5, 2018, three months later.
• Saved from Development Hell: Development dated as far back as the late 1990s with Will Smith starring. However, his participation was nixed by his decision to star in Ali. In 2000, Jamie Foxx and Oliver Stone were rumoured to be seriously interested in remaking the movie, with Foxx first seeking out Aaliyah and then Paul Walker for the leading roles. Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey were also sought and Alicia Keys turned down an offer to play the female lead. Plans for the adaptation were shelved for several years. In January 2011, it was announced that Clint Eastwood was in talks to direct Beyoncé and Creator/Bradley Cooper. However, the project was delayed due to Beyoncé's pregnancy. In April 2012, writer Will Fetters told Collider that the script was inspired by Kurt Cobain.
• Throw It In!: The bathtub fight scene was partially improvised. Jackson calling Ally "ugly" was improvised thus Lady Gaga's reaction was genuine.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Clint Eastwood was the original director, and Beyoncé would star, but her pregnancy threw a wrench on this idea.
  • Bradley Cooper originally only planned to direct the film, with Jack White playing Jackson Maine, but Warner Bros. rejected the idea. Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Eminem, Jon Hamm, Jason Momoa, Sean Penn, Will Smith, Denzel Washington were considered for the role.
  • Selena Gomez, Whitney Houston^note She chose to focus on the remake of Sparkle instead during the film's development in 2011, Kesha, Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato, Rihanna and Shakira were considered to play the role of Ally.
  • Ray Liotta was considered for the role of Bobby.
  • Nicolas Cage was considered for both Bobby and Lorenzo.
  • Robert De Niro, John Travolta and John Turturro were considered for the role of Lorenzo.
  • Cooper considered a different film ending where Jackson and Ally perform "Shallow" as the final song, which would've had Jackson being Spared By Adaptation, given that his counterparts in the previous three versions die in the end of their respective films.
  • Jackson's suicide was originally going to be by swimming out into the ocean to drown, as in the 1937 and 1954 versions. This is foreshadowed here both by his interest in swimming while in rehab and the lyrics of the song "Shallow". Cooper claimed that he even scouted the beach where the scene would be filmed. However, just before they were to go to location Cooper had a vision of it in the garage and decided to film that version instead.
  • The last scene between Ally and Bobby was originally written for her and her father. According to Sam Elliott:
    It seemed like the right thing, the dad would come to commiserate with the daughter. I'd wrapped on the film, and I got a text from Bradley, "I got a great idea. What if..." And I just texted him back, I said, "Fuck. Just let me know when you want me there". That's why he decided it should have been Bobby. And it's so right. They had this relationship, and it was a terrible relationship. They loved each other clearly, but it was a terrible relationship. Never resolved. Unrequited. That was one of the nicest things that anybody's ever done for me, to bring me back to do that.

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