Lady Gaga transformed for A Star is Born, and no one is going to let you forget that. But, in one regards, she kind of hasn't. Gaga is being billed as "Lady Gaga" instead of Stefani Germanotta, the name she still sometimes goes by. In most regards, it seems Gaga has put Stefani firmly in the past — a recent Vogue profile alludes to Gaga being "Stefani" when she was 19, before she was famous, which means that now she is 100% not Stefani. In the same profile, her co-star Bradley Cooper refers to her as "Gaga." At the Venice Film Festival, Gaga sat behind a sign that read "L. Gaga."
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But, according to early reports from the Toronto International Film Festival, co-stars Anthony Ramos (from Hamilton on Broadway and Netflix's She's Gotta Have It) and Dave Chapelle have been actively calling her Stefani.
"Stefani's a beast," Ramos said during a press conference. In response, Gaga (Germanotta?) said, "That's my man!"
A lot has been made of Gaga's "makeover" for the film — Cooper wiped her makeup away with a wipe, allegedly, on her first day on set. Speaking to Vogue for this most recent interview, Gaga admitted that her glamorous facade has functioned as armor at times.
"I just kept creating more and more fantasies to escape into, new skins to shed," she said. "And every time I shed a skin, it was like taking a shower when you’re dirty: getting rid of, washing off, shedding all of the bad, and becoming something new."
So, maybe her newest skin is Lady Gaga herself? We'll know for sure when the Academy reads out the Oscar nominations (she is, let's say, 80% likely to get one). Maybe the name will be "Stefani Germanotta." But, based on her glam festival looks, Gaga will probably stay the course, and we'll get to hear an announcer read out, "Lady Gaga, A Star is Born!"