In a new interview, Bradley Cooper recalled witnessing the rapper watching the courtroom reality show. 

Cooper was meeting with Jay’s wife, Beyoncé, to talk about the development of his 2018 remake of A Star Is Born. 

At the time, the actor-director hoped to cast the real-life musical superstar as the film’s lead. (Fellow chart-topper Lady Gaga would ultimately land the part.)

In a new interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Cooper said he had originally pitched Beyoncé for the role to Warner Bros. 

Pictures president Greg Silverman. Silverman agreed to green-light the project if Cooper could snag Beyoncé and “make it for under $25 million,” Cooper said, according to People.

“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy—I still remember. 

Yeah, I’m not kidding,” Cooper said, in response to interviewer Willie Geist’s mild protests of disbelief. “And I was freaking [out]—I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her.”

Beyoncé and Cooper worked on developing A Star Is Born for about a year. As Cooper explained, “It was crazy. She was incredible and so was [Jay-Z], and we developed it for like a year together. I mean, she is one of the greatest people of all time. And then that fell through.”

Cooper, who directed the project and costarred as singer Jackson Maine, then pitched the idea to Adele, who he said maybe texted him back once but was “too busy” to work on the movie.

Finally, Cooper found his leading lady in Gaga, after watching her sing “La Vie en Rose” at a benefit concert. “It just blew the doors off of the whole place, and it was in that moment where it was like, ‘That’s it. What was I even thinking?’ And then I asked to meet her,” he said.

Gaga’s performance earned the star her first-ever Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she took home the Oscar for Best Original Song.

“Bradley Cooper believed in me for the role of Ally Maine in A Star Is Born,” Gaga said during a 2021 appearance on Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast. “It was the success of our artistic collaboration that landed me where I am now.”

The two seem to have maintained a close friendship in the years since, with Gaga even coming out to support a red carpet screening of Cooper’s latest film, Maestro, this past December.

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Source: Tampa Bay Times