This is not a complaint.
Maison Margiela Artisanal designed by John Galliano.
Christian Louboutin for Maison Margiela shoes.
PORTRAIT OF A LADYShe’s also been recording music: a duet with Bruno Mars and a new pop album for 2025 she calls LG7. Dior dress and skirt.
Costumes have a way of upstaging people.
She was dressed like a lunatic andyou guessed itbehaving like one.
To be clear: Gaga is tiny.
LOOK AT ME“Harley Quinn is a character people know,” she says of herJokerrole. “I had a different experience creating her, namelymyexperience.” Hodakova sweater.
Im going through an Elizabeth Taylor moment, she said.
There are pictures from these adventures.
One in particular, from Tokyo, speaks volumes.
FACING ITHer big news? Gaga and her boyfriend, Michael Polansky, got engaged in April after a day of rock climbing. “I’m just, like,sohappy.” The Row coat.
Was it the dress that made her behave like we were at prom?
It had the effect of making it seem like she might, at any moment, collapse.
Or maybe the dress demanded she inhabit a kind of helplessnessthe Victorian woman in peril, the fainting damsel.
TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLYGaga and Polansky met in 2019 and became close during the COVID lockdowns.
There are paparazzi pictures of us coming and going from the restaurant.
Her bodyguard, a very handsome bald man, is holding on to her arm (shes so weak!
A description Gaga would have no doubt loved at the time!
TIED TOGETHER“She’s someone who is happiest when she’s creating,” Polansky says. “It’s one of the qualities I love most about her.”
Dior dress and skirt.
We talked for hours, and I never got the sense that she wasnt being real with me.
But I almost always flew home worried.
ANYTHING GOESGivenchy Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen fall 1999 jacket.
And then: the drinking and the smoking.
It just made me a little nervous.
(Bob Dylans tour bus from the 70s is still parked in the backyard.)
FIND YOURSELFValentino dress.
(She will release its first single in October.)
This is a classic Gaga trope, perceiving an object as human.
I explain this to her and add that I have begun to think of certain people as hyperobjects.
MISCHIEF MAKER“I was really, truly fascinated with artifice as an artistic tool,” she says of her early career. “I still am.” Dries Van Noten jacket. The Row hat.
Like you, I say.
Thank you, she says, like a 10-year-old who has just received a gold star.
I present that as a compliment, I say.
SPEECHLESSYohji Yamamoto dress. Vintage Andrew James hat.
I receive that as a compliment, she says.
We eventually find ourselves in a windowless room in front of a mixing board.
As has often been the case, she wants to play me some new music.
Im able to hear it back.
LOOK AT MEHarley Quinn is a character people know, she says of herJokerrole.
I had a different experience creating her, namelymyexperience.
BLUE HOURBalenciaga 53rd Couture collection coat.
But I also think that playing music during interviews allows her to wind down the clock a bit.
This is partly to do with the fact that she is not entirely comfortable doing interviews.
This might sound mawkish or grandiose, but I know exactly what she means.
GRAND ENTRANCEThe Row coat. Vivienne Westwood fall 1993 shoes.
Her character, Lee, an enigma herself, seems only interested in Joaquin Phoenixs characterspersona,Joker.
Not so much the actual person behind the mask, the failed clown and stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck.
FACING ITHer big news?
Gaga and her boyfriend, Michael Polansky, got engaged in April after a day of rock climbing.
Im just, like,sohappy.
At one point, we get into a conversation about her own recent fanaticism.
She rattles off a list: Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish.
I mean, Ireallylove them.
I go on the internet and, like,cry.And I love Taylor Swift too.
I watch it all, and Im like: Yup.
Here, her voice cracks and her eyes well up with tears.
Im not only cheering them on, I want them to know that my heart isinit with them.
And I want them all to feel really happy.
I am strangely moved.
she shouts through a laugh as I hand her a tissue.
I get it, I say.
Being vulnerable is something that has changed, right?
Well, on the way over here Irushedhome to change out ofsomeof my gym clothes.
Its as if she has been steadied; fixed in place;trued,in the carpentry senselevel.
You seem different, I say.
I hope thats good, she says, cocking a bleached eyebrow.
So, whats changed?
The missing piece in my life was having real love, she says.
Did I mention the extra-sparkly diamond on her left hand?
You cant unsee it.
Its Wilma Flintstonesize, a cartoon diamond, but it suits her.
TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLYGaga and Polansky met in 2019 and became close during the COVID lockdowns.
I could never have imagined that my mom…found the most perfect person for me?
We had the most amazing conversation.
I didnt know much about her and honestly wasnt sure what to expect, he says.
TIED TOGETHERShes someone who is happiest when shes creating, Polansky says.
Its one of the qualities I love most about her.
And then COVID hit.
It was really kind of special, she says.
Id been so focused on my career since I was a teenager.
And the gift of that time was that I got to completely focus on my relationship.
I met this totally supportive, loving human being who wanted to get to know meoutside of Lady Gaga.
He adds, The pandemic was easier on her than you might think.
I think she loved the chance to slow down.
It is always awkward to talk about the upside of a pandemic.
It was very painful to see how deeply it affected the world, she says.
Not only how sick people got, so many people died, but also so many people were alone.
I feel very grateful that I wasnt alone.
I had never met anyone like Michael.
Hes so smart and so kind.
And his life and my life are very different.
But I think what I want my fans to know is that Im just, like,sohappy.
I was in a really dark place.
I struggled for, like,manyyears before that.
But everything started to change.
Because I had a real friend who saw thewaysin which I was unhappy and why.
And he wasnt afraid to truly hold my hand.
And get to know me.
On a very deep level.
ANYTHING GOESGivenchy Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen fall 1999 jacket.
Shes someone who is happiest when shes creating.
Its one of the qualities I love most about her, Polansky says.
But I see her enjoying it so much more than she did when I met her back in 2019.
Being on the same page is essential to keeping a family all together, she says.
It is no secret that she wants children.
This is a far cry from how things looked 15 years ago.
At one point, she stumbled up to me with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Luc Carl.
A smirk crossed his face.
Okay, Bette Midler, he said.
Sure, it was funny; but it was also cruel.
She clearly has been looking forand failing to findthe right guy.
Because its a big life.
And I dont think anyone really knows what it feels like unless youre in it.
Her voice drops into a softer tone.
And I dont have to do this alone anymore.
Well, Ill tell you whats changed, says Arthur/Joker.
Im not alone anymore.
Dries Van Noten jacket.
That is its vibe: a world gone mad.
Lets put on a show!
The movie is essentially a courtroom drama, but then the characters also sing songs, mostly standards.
Gaga insists that it is not a musical.
She recently learned the termmeta-modern to describe certain films in which everything comes at you all at once.
There is no differentiating thrillers from comedies from musicals; genres are melting into one another.
That is whatFolie a Deuxgets at.
Which also happens to be a perfectly fine description of Lady Gagas entire project.
Like her character inJoker,she has a timeless, unplaceable quality.
Who else could have pulled all of that off while also breaking your heart in tight close-up?
Vintage Andrew James hat.
Todd Phillips was a producer onA Star Is Born,which is how he met Gaga.
Shes sort of touched, in a way, he says.
She can be really hard on herself as a performer.
She takes it seriously.
A few weeks later, he returned with Joaquin Phoenix, whom Gaga had never met.
Thatwas really kind of wonderful, Phillips says.
And I was like, Of course, but I dont think shes gonnacome.
And she said, Yeah, Ill be five minutes behind you.
She is the most uncomplicated-complicated person Ive ever met.
And that is her beauty as an artist, too.
It was a really cool, liberating process.
You think, Okay, this scene works, lets just go shoot it.
It was not a small feat.
She puts herself around very powerful people, says Phillips.
I mean, Bradley Cooper, to be across from him out of the gate.
And then, of course, she brought the music.
I wrote a waltz for the movie, says Gaga.
There are moments in the film where Im playing an adult woman who sings like a little girl.
And shes moving through the world with this kind of immaturity, which I thought was interesting.
The trick for Lady Gaga was learning how to sing like an ordinary citizen.
I worked really hard on that, kind of trying to undo all my technique.
That is not what this film is about at all.
And I encouraged her to sing poorly.
I remember asking her to sing without her vibrato.
She has a beautiful vibratotoo beautiful.
I think she felt naked without it.
But as soon as she moved away from technique she unlocked her characters voice.
BLUE HOURBalenciaga 53rd Couture collection coat.
The film mucks around in fame and fans and mental illness and monstersLady Gaga themes, all.
Her voice cracks again and she takes a moment.
And what happens when you cover up all of the complexities beneath the surface?
She does eventually play music for me.
Gaga was in Malibu putting the final touches on her own record when Bruno called out of the blue.
He asked me to come to his studio to hear something, says Gaga.
It was around midnight when I got there and I was blown away.
We stayed up all night finishing the song.
She turns it all the way up.
Bruno and I think the world needs to hear this song, she says.
Its some real shit.
Its a real conversation.
And its about love.
She queues up a song from her new pop record.
Its intense and ominousan old-school Gaga banger, unsettling but also buoyant.
Michael is the person who told me to make a new pop record.
He was like, Babe.
you better make pop music.
The Chromatica tour was an epiphany.
Michael and I did that tour together, she says.
I did it pain-free!
I havent smoked pot in years.
Ive, like,changed.
She shoots me a look.
Which is really different than, like, doing what other peoplewantyou to do.
And that can be a lot of pressure and its scary.
But I feel like Im finally coming out on the other side.
GRAND ENTRANCEThe Row coat.
Vivienne Westwood fall 1993 shoes.
I had always assumed it was she who was at the helm, steering the ship.
Who else if not Lady Gaga?
When it comes to my artistry, that is true, she says.
I signed my first deal when I was 19.
And I wouldnt say I marched into my career knowing how to navigate the business of it all.
I think a lot of pop stars getreallyoverwhelmed by this industry.
And sometimes we dont make it into our 30s.
A quick look of self-satisfaction: Ive already made it pretty far.
I dont know her well enough to call her Stefani.
Is Lady Gaga…a persona?
She shakes her head.
Thats a big question.
She takes a deep breath.
You know itsnota persona.
I amallof these things.
The person that I am when Im onstage in front of 85,000 people?
That is also me.
Thats like one of the freedoms of my relationship with Michael.
And Lady Gaga is the whole me.
Now, its a much more palatable mixture of authenticity and imagination.
But for me, I played a lot with artifice.
I wasfascinatedwith artifice, really, truly fascinated with it as an artistic tool.
But my relationship to myself as an artist now is more empowered: This is me.
Its too…complicatedto split yourself in two and have to turn it off and on.
Its so much more empowering to be like, Im a woman and Im super complex.
Michael said to me once, I will know that youre really feeling great when you know thatyouhave you.
I used to always be like,But whos gonna have my back?!
And now Im like, Ive got my back.
Produced by Connect The Dots.
Set Design: Marla Weinhoff.
