Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Lady Gaga competes for her first-ever acting Oscar Sunday night. And while it’s pretty impressive for anybody to score an Oscar nod for their first film role, Gaga isn’t just anybody. According to colleagues both old and new, she’s pretty extraordinary.
“I loved her from afar for a long time,” says Oscar nominee Sam Elliott, who plays Bradley Cooper‘s character’s brother in A Star Is Born.
“My daughter Cleo‘s Gaga’s age, so I’ve been listening to Stefani‘s music for a long time,” Elliott tells ABC Radio, using the singer’s birth name. “But having a chance to get in close and, y’know, fall in love with her on a different level, up close…it was an amazing experience.”
In fact, Elliott loves being able to call Gaga by her birth name.
“She’s Gaga onstage, she’s Gaga in all that stuff she puts on, those get-ups,” he chuckles. “But on a personal level, she, to me, is Stefani.”
Another artistn who worked with Gaga before she was famous, agrees that her Oscar nod isn’t that shocking.
“I’m not surprised. I mean, if anybody deserves an Oscar nomination it’s her,” New Kids on the Block member Joey McIntyre tells ABC Radio. “She’s a wonderful, powerful, humble performer. She was so nice and kind, and just ready to mix it up.”
Joey recalls that in 2008, a then-unknown Gaga appeared as a featured artist on the New Kids’ 2008 album, The Block, and then toured with them as their opening act.
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