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“I was even lying, pretending to be my own manager so I could get the 10 p.m. slot when there would be the most people at the club as possible. But that’s not Ally.”

Her struggling singer character lifts off when Cooper’s alcoholic Jackson Maine takes an interest in her and, as their love blossoms, gives her the confidence to become a star. And as her fame grows his starts to slowly fade as he slips out of the limelight.

It’s a tragic story that’s been told on the big screen three other times — in 1937, 1954 and 1976 — but it’s one that never gets old, says Cooper, who also co-wrote the screenplay and directs.

“I knew I wanted to tell a love story,” he explains in a separate interview, “but I saw Annie Lennox singing I Put a Spell on You, and I was with Clint (Eastwood) and I saw the veins in her neck and I thought, ‘There’s nothing purer than communicating emotions through voice.’ And A Star Is Born was over with Warner Bros. and I had my own take on it and it just went from there.”

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For a time other actresses were rumoured to be involved with the film, including Beyonce, but Cooper was drawn to Stefani, as he refers to her, because of her tenacity and never-say-die attitude.

The experience of acting and helping carry a movie was unnerving, Lady Gaga admits. “But, as Bradley says to me in the film, ‘All you got to do is trust me.’ I did that every day and it took the nerves away.”

After a rapturous reception at TIFF, and with the film due out next month, Lady Gaga says she’s just “humble and grateful to be here.”

“When I was young girl in New York, I had a dream of being an actress one day and I didn’t make it as an actress, so I decided to go for it as a musician. To know that this film moves people moves my heart as well.”