Lady Gaga on Her and Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’ Performance and Winning an Oscar

As Gaga and Bradley Cooper rehearsed A Star Is Born’s hit song “Shallow” ahead of their Sunday night performance at the Oscars, he said, “Let’s just drop a little bit of joy.” And, as Gaga told press backstage, “It turns out, joy did a whole lot for me.” Perhaps that was a good call, because their performance was a highlight of the ceremony, and, as it turned out, the song won Gaga the Oscar for Best Original Song.

But surprisingly, Gaga said one big reason “Shallow” resonated with so many is because of the thing we look at a million times a day in the palm of our hand: our phone.

“I really believe in my heart that the unfortunate truth is that our cell phones are becoming reality,” she said. “It’s become reality for the world. And in this song we provide not just a conversation, but also a very poignant statement. I wish not to be in the shallow, but I am. I wish to dive off the deep end, but watch me do it. I think this is something that speaks to many people, and during, I think, a very shallow time, it’s a chance for us all to grab hands and dive into the water together and swim into the deepest depths of the water that we can.”
ABC’s Coverage Of The 91st Annual Academy Awards – Backstage

One of her other biggest messages backstage was a request for the Academy to change their gendered awards system. Right now the acting awards are separated in to actor and actress, but Gaga said, “I have a true dream that these awards shows will not be male and female, that we will include everyone.”

And while it might appear that Gaga has it all, with not just her music career, but now an acting career as well, she said appearances can be deceptive.

“People see what they see on the outside, and in some shape or form we become archetypes,” she said, “I was so determined to live my dreams but there was so much in the way. There were so many things that I didn’t anticipate, things that broke me, that tortured me.” When she is all dressed up, things might seem perfect, but “the truth is this is very, very hard work and it is not for the faint of heart.”

For Gaga, winning an Oscar also wasn’t the simple, straightforwardly dreamy moment you might have expected it to be. It actually made her look back on all the hard things she’d had to overcome. “When this Oscar was handed to me tonight,” she said, “I looked right in the eyes of it and I saw a lot of pain. I saw all the things I’ve been through.”

As for what she wants to do next, Gaga’s plan is simply to “continue to be myself. I want to continue to fight for what I believe in and do my best.”