Bradley Cooper once went to Beyonc and Jay-Z's house and saw him watching Judge Judy

Bradley Cooper has revealed he visited Beyoncé and Jay-Z at their home and found the rapper watching Judge Judy.

The Hollywood star has spoken about the process of recruiting A Star Is Born’s female lead years before it hit the big screen. The role of Ally eventually went to Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta), while Bradley Cooper played her love interest Jackson. The film and TV actor also wrote and directed the blockbuster, but it took a lot to get the movie off the ground and he once considered the Crazy in Love singer for the female lead even going to her house to talk about the role.

Bradley Cooper couldn’t believe he saw Jay-Z watching Judge Judy

In an interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Bradley Cooper said he visited Beyoncé to discuss giving her the movie role and was surprised to find Jay-Z watching Judge Judy.

He called the meeting with the celebrity couple “crazy.”

“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember,” he explained. “I’m not kidding. And I was freaking [out]. I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her.

“It was crazy. She was incredible and so was he, and we developed it for like a year together. I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time. Then that fell through.”

The 49-year-old added he was told he would have a $25 million budget if he could get Beyoncé, though it doesn’t seem to have affected what became of the film. It was a huge success and eventually ended up having $36 million in production money. The Hollywood blockbuster racked up $436.2m at the Box Office.

Even though she didn’t get the role, Bey is no stranger to the big screen. She has starred in a handful of big blockbusters including the third Austin Powers film, Dreamgirls, and the live-action The Lion King.

Despite being up for playing Ally the celebrity fell pregnant with Blue Ivy and so had to pull out. The film was an 11-year project, according to one of its producers, and even had Clint Eastwood at its helm for a time.

Bill Gerber explained: “Time happened. Beyonce got pregnant, and then Clint went off and did another movie.

“I called Beyonce’s people, and she came out, she met with Clint, and I’m sitting there and I think I’m watching something historic about to happen. And then it didn’t. It’s just the movie business.”

Getting Lady Gaga on board

After Beyoncé 42, backed out of the project Bradley Cooper approached Adele but she was “busy.” He then decided to try out Lady Gaga for the part and, well, the rest is history.

During interviews at the time, he couldn’t help but praise the music star. Their chemistry on-screen had people even believing they were having an affair.

Talking about her performance with Ridley Scott during Variety’s Directors on Directors series, Bradley said: “I remember the thing that blew my mind,” Cooper said.

“It seemed simple but I thought it was a tall order, when my character brings [Ally] onstage for the first time. I truly believed that that person had never been on a stage before.”

He continued: “And I remember thinking, ‘How is she pulling this off? That I actually believe on every level — as the director, as the character — that this person has never been in front of 20,000 people before. That was really kind of mind-blowing.”

Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-02-25

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