Bradley Cooper Addresses Lady Gaga Romance Rumors, Calls Her 'Terribly Charismatic and Beautiful'

Kevin Winter/Getty Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper is squashing rumors that things became romantic between him and Lady Gaga.

The pair famously starred opposite each other in the 2018 film A Star Is Born. Their intimate duet of the song "Shallow" at the 2019 Academy Awards had fans convinced the stars might have feelings for each other in real life.

In Gaga's new cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Cooper, 46, clarifies that it was all just them staying in character to curb his nerves while singing live at the awards show.

"Just from a personal standpoint, it reduces the anxiety level," he said of acting during the duet onstage. "They kind of fall in love in that scene in the film. It's that explosive moment that happens to happen to them on a stage in front of thousands of people. … It would have been so weird if we were both on stools facing the audience."

Elsewhere in the THR story, Cooper praised Gaga's work in A Star Is Born, which he also directed.

"She's just so terribly charismatic and beautiful. When I met her, I thought, 'If I can just harness that … then it's just for me to mess up.' But then, when we started working together, I realized, 'Oh, oh, the sky's the limit in terms of what she's able to do and her commitment level,' " he said.

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Back in November 2019, Gaga also burst fans' bubble and explained that the Oscars performance was, in fact, "a performance." When Oprah Winfrey asked Gaga about it for a conversation with ELLE magazine at the time, Gaga candidly responded that she thinks "the press is very silly" in regards to the headline-making moment.

Photography by AB+DM / Ahmad Barber + Donte Maurice

"I mean, we made a love story. For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love," she said. "And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on. And we worked hard on it. We worked for days."

"It was orchestrated as a performance," the House of Gucci star said, adding, "In truth, when we talked about it, we went, 'Well, I guess we did a good job!' "