The actress and singer plays in ‘La casa Gucci’ Patrizia Reggiani, the wife and murderer of the firm’s heir: “She was not an opportunistic gold digger”
Directed by Ridley Scott, ‘The Gucci House’ features Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and Salma Hayek. The pop star plays Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio Gucci’s (Adam Driver) controversial ex-wife, who went from being compared to Elizabeth Taylor to being called the Black Widow for murdering her husband via a hitman in the mid-90s. unleashing one of the most controversial scandals in the fashion industry. His performance is already gaining ground in the Oscars race. Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York 35 years ago, studied for a year and a half for the role. Her dedication led her to live as Reggiani, speaking with a strong Italian accent throughout this time.
-Why do you think Patrizia Reggiani killed her husband?
-I spent a lot of time reading about her and watching the interviews she gave. I avoided opinion pieces as I really wanted to create my own. I thought about its roots and researched them like a journalist trying to approach the role fairly. I discovered that Patrizia lies all the time, and I dedicated myself to studying her way of lying; what she looks like when she lies, what she looks like when she doesn’t, and who the real woman was before she married and murdered her husband. There is very little information about her in her youth and we had to make it up. I think it was a woman who fell in love, who not only loved Maurizio, but loved the way he empowered her within the family business. When it was removed, she reacted in a way that most women don’t. Most do not have their husband killed, and yet I believe that within their system, with the kind of oppression that she experienced, it happened simply because she felt hurt.
-Lived in character for over a year. Why did you decide to undergo such intense preparation for a role?
-I really wanted to make sure I was going to do it right. I’m a perfectionist and I wanted to make sure that Patrizia never looked as glamorous as the Gucci family. In terms of his physique, I was inspired by three different animals: before meeting Maurizio he was a cat, a house cat. In the middle of the movie, when he was part of the Gucci, he was a fox. So I studied the way foxes hunt and was quite playful with my performance. And then I studied panthers for the final part. In the third act of the film, she turns into this big cat. I watched a lot of videos of the way a panther hunts, being seductive before hunting.
-What did Gucci mean to Patrizia?
-I think it was a way to survive for her. A reason for survival, an opportunity to import a way of life that she never had. Thanks to her marriage, she felt valuable. He advised Maurizio within the company, pushed him in his business. When she really shines, he shines too. Gucci was everything to her. In a way, she dreamed of a better life and Gucci gave it to her, but she wasn’t an opportunistic gold digger. She believed she was destined to run Gucci and belonging to the clan made sense, especially coming from a mob related family.
-Your role tells the life of Patrizia for 30 years. Was it difficult to adapt to the different periods of your life?
-Interpreting someone’s life for 30 years is intense. By the way, me posing as a 22 or 23 year old in the movie is ridiculous, but I thank Ridley for believing in me that way. This film has been a challenge and my hotel room was like a science lab. We had 15 wigs that were real replicas of the way she wore her hair at exact times in her life. Everything we did was very precise. In the morning I could be acting out a scene in which she is almost 30 years old and in the afternoon another in which she was 25. We would go back and forth, because we were organized and I was always ready for the director.
-You give a real dimension to a character that could have fallen into a soap opera cartoon.
-Most actors get excited when playing murderers, adventurers, people who use chaos to ruin the lives of others. However, I thought that Patrizia was a real woman and decided to immerse myself in her with respect. I was at a difficult time in my life when I was offered this script, I had just come out of a depression and doubted my work. When ‘La casa Gucci’ came to me I felt a door open and I took the opportunity. I have never had a better experience with a director. Sometimes you come across someone who loves himself more than the actors or the story they are telling.
Lady Gaga and Adam Driver in ‘The Gucci House’.
-Patrizia was always despised by the Gucci.
-It was never prestigious enough for them. Her lack of education embarrassed them, they considered her a strange woman. But, in my opinion, all its power is an illusion, just as patriarchy is an illusion without end. It’s the way that, as a woman, I can feel like I have power, but as soon as a man says no to me, my whole world falls apart. Maurizio gets rid of her and that is what prompts him to assassinate him.
-Do you feel in a better place now than when filming started?
-Yes, because I finished proud of the result. I do not make art looking for praise, but for the passion that the work produces in me. I lost my way as an artist for a while when I started to worry about pleasing people, but I don’t think that way anymore. We have no idea where this movie is going after its release, but it doesn’t matter because we know we did something great. When you’re lucky like me and you’re in a Ridley Scott movie, you know that whatever happens, this is going to last a lifetime.
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