Directed by Ridley Scott, 'The House of Gucci' features Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and Salma Hayek in its cast. The pop star plays Patrizia Reggiani, the controversial ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), who went from being compared to Elizabeth Taylor to being called the Black Widow for murdering her husband through a hitman in the mid-90s, unleashing one of the most controversial scandals in the fashion industry. Her performance is already gaining ground in the Oscar race. Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York 35 years ago, spent a year and a half studying for the role. Her surrender led her to live as a Reggiani, speaking with a thick Italian accent throughout this time.
-Why do you think Patrizia Reggiani killed her husband?
-I spent a lot of time reading about her and watching the interviews she gave of her. I avoided opinion pieces, as she really wanted to create her own. I thought about her roots and researched them like a journalist trying to approach the role fairly. I discovered that Patrizia lies all the time, and I dedicated myself to studying her way of lying; how she looks when she lies, how she looks when she doesn't and who was the real woman before he married and murdered her husband. There is very little information about her in her youth and we had to make it up. I think she was a woman that she fell in love with, who not only loved Maurizio, but she loved the way he empowered her within her family business. When she took it off, she reacted in a way most women don't. Most don't have her husband killed, and yet I think within her system, with the kind of oppression she experienced, it happened simply because she felt hurt.
Video. Trailer for 'The Gucci House'.
-She lived inside the character for over a year. Why did she decide to undergo such intense preparation for a role?
-She really wanted to make sure that she was going to do well. I am a perfectionist and I wanted to make sure that Patrizia never looked as glamorous as the Gucci family. In terms of her physique, I was inspired by three different animals: before I met Maurizio she was a cat, a domestic cat. In the middle of the movie, when he is part of the Gucci, he was a fox. So I studied the way foxes hunt and was quite playful with my performance. And then I studied panthers for the final part. In the third act of the movie, she turns into this big cat. I saw many videos of the way she hunts a panther, being seductive before hunting.
-What did Gucci mean to Patrizia?
I think it was a way of surviving for her. A reason for survival, an opportunity to import a way of life that she never had. Thanks to her marriage, she felt valuable. She advised Maurizio within the company, pushed him in his business. When she really shines, he shines too. Gucci was everything to her. In a way, she dreamed of a better life and Gucci gave it to her, but she was not an opportunistic gold digger. She believed that she was destined to run Gucci and belonging to the clan made sense, especially coming from a family connected to the mafia.
Lady Macbeth in designer clothes
-Her role of her tells the life of Patrizia for 30 years. Was it difficult to adapt to the different times of her life?
-Playing someone's life for 30 years is intense. By the way, for me to play a 22 or 23 year old in the movie is ridiculous, but I thank Ridley for believing in me in such a way. This film has been challenging and my hotel room was like a science lab. We had 15 wigs that were actual replicas of the way she wore her hair at exact times in her life. Everything we did was very precise. In the morning I could be doing a scene in which she is almost 30 years old and in the afternoon another one in which she was 25. We would come and go, because we were organized and I was always ready for the director.
-You give a real dimension to a character that could have fallen into a soap opera cartoon.
-Most of the actors get excited playing assassins, adventurers, people who use chaos to ruin the lives of others. However, I thought that Patrizia was a real woman and decided to immerse myself in her with respect. I was at a difficult time in my life when they offered me this script, I had just come out of a depression and doubted my work. When 'La casa Gucci' came to me, I felt a door open and I took advantage of the opportunity. I have never had a better experience with a director. Sometimes you meet someone who loves himself more than the actors or the story they are telling.
Lady Gaga and Adam Driver in 'The House of Gucci'.
-Patrizia was always despised by the Gucci.
-It was never prestigious enough for them. Her lack of education embarrassed them, she was considered a strange woman. But, in my opinion, all the power of it is an illusion, in the same way that patriarchy is an illusion without end. It's the way that, as a woman, I can feel like I have power, but as soon as a man tells me no, my whole world falls apart. Maurizio gets rid of her and that is what drives him to kill him.
-Does she feel in a better place now than when filming started?
-Yes, because I finished proud of the result. I do not make art looking for praise, but for the passion that the work produces in me. I lost my way as an artist for a while when I started worrying about pleasing people, but I don't think like that anymore. We have no idea where this movie will go after its release, but it doesn't matter because we know we did something great. When you're lucky like me and you're in a Ridley Scott movie, you know that whatever happens, this is going to last a lifetime.
