Madness in her method: Did Lady Gaga really stay in character for 18 months?

Lady Gaga inhabited her role in upcoming drama House of Gucci off screen and on for a year and a half. Was the psychological difficulty' she suffered as a result worth it?

A Star Is Born was both a blessing and a curse for Lady Gaga. A blessing because it put her at the centre of a commercially successful, Oscar-nominated film, thereby rocketing her to the top of a profession of which she had very little experience. A curse, too, because she was essentially just playing herself; a singer who went from performing in drag bars to commanding huge stages in very little time. Quick, without looking, tell me the name of the character Lady Gaga played in A Star Is Born. You can't, can you? You've always just called her Lady Gaga.

This means that she ultimately had two options after A Star Is Born. She could abandon her movie career in the knowledge that she had blurred the line between character and performer more successfully than any actor working today, or she could find another role. A role not so heavily steeped in her own biography. A role that would finally prove to the world that she was an actor of the highest calibre.