Barbra Streisand: Bradley Cooper’s ‘A Star Is Born’ Was ‘the Wrong Idea’ and Not Original Enough
Bradley Cooper told Entertainment Weekly in August 2018 that Barbra Streisand visited the set of his feature directorial debut “A Star Is Born” and gave her blessing to the film’s cast and crew. Streisand starred opposite Kris Kristofferson in the 1976 “A Star Is Born” movie. Cooper said at the time, “She gave us a blessing. Everybody was so excited she was there. We just looked at each other and were like, ‘Wow. How are we here right now?'” Cooper’s co-star Lady Gaga added of Streisand, “She was so, so kind.”
Skip ahead three years and Streisand is getting a bit more honest about Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” remake, which grossed $436 million worldwide and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. During an interview on the Australian talk series “The Sunday Project” (via Entertainment Weekly), Streisand shaded Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” for being too similar to her own 1976 version. Streisand said she would’ve preferred to see an earlier idea to remake “A Star Is Born” with Will Smith and Beyoncé in the lead roles.
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“At first, when I heard it was going to be done again, it was supposed to be Will Smith and Beyoncé, and I thought, that’s interesting,” Streisand said. “Really make it different again, different kind of music, integrated actors, I thought that was a great idea. So, I was surprised when I saw how alike it was to the version that I did in 1976.”
Streisand said she “thought it was the wrong idea,” referring to Cooper’s movie. And while Streisand “can’t argue with [the] success” of Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” (it won the Oscar for Best Original Song and spawned a chart-topping single thanks to “Shallow”), she noted, “I don’t care so much about success as I do originality.”
Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” stars the filmmaker as Jackson Maine, a country music star battling addiction and his fading stardom. Lady Gaga plays Ally, an aspiring singer-songwriter who begins a relationship with Jackson and becomes a pop sensation in her own right. Critics praised the movie, with Cooper and Gaga both receiving Oscar nominations for their acting performances. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.
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