Lady Gaga (along with her faux Italian accent) gained acclaim for her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s crime drama, House Of Gucci, and is expected to garner an Academy Award nomination. In order to do such a convincing portrayal of Maurizio Gucci’s wife, Lady Gaga has been open about her method acting approach, even staying in character for nearly two years in order to transform into Reggiani.
As filming wrapped on the film, Lady Gaga says she believes that she was ‘followed’ by Patrizia Reggiani, and felt a strange presence on the last day of filming. She told W magazine:
On the last day of filming, I was on the balcony of my apartment in Rome, and I was blasting Dean Martin singing “Mambo Italiano,” and I had a cigarette hanging out of my mouth. I was Patrizia. But I knew I had to say goodbye to her: Large swarms of flies kept following me around, and I truly began to believe that she had sent them. I was ready to let her go.
Patrizia notoriously disapproved of the film, and was reportedly “annoyed” that the popstar wouldn’t agree to meet with her before the production started.
In order to portray Patrizia, Lady Gaga went to great lengths to make her performance genuine, including trying over 50 different hairstyles to perfect the look, and hiring an on-set psychiatric nurse to ensure she wouldn’t push herself too hard. It clearly worked in her favor, as Gaga’s powerful performance gave us the most iconic line of 2021, which was reportedly ad-libbed: “Father, son, house of Gucci.”