Lady Gaga Describes Creating Her Stage Persona As a Kind of Armor: ‘Stefani Is Me… Lady Gaga Is My Creation’
Lady Gaga had a lot on her mind earlier this month when she sat down with Late Show host Stephen Colbert for an expansive interview at the storied Bitter End venue in New York’s Greenwich Village, where then-unknown Stefani Germanotta first performed as her now world-famous alter ego in 2005.
Wearing all black, including a black hood and knee-high black boots, Gaga reminisced about the first time she performed at the venue as a 14-year-old, marveling at the memory of the house crew helping out by tuning the piano — which was on the stage just over Colbert’s shoulder — and playing the venue regularly for the next three years under her birth name while showing off vintage flyers from those days that her mother had kept.
Another vital keepsake from the early days of her Gaga era was a picture of a clipboard she would pass around at shows asking attendees if they’d enjoyed the performance and asking for their names and emails, as well a a picture of a “hit list” she’d written up early on of record labels she dreamed of being on. Gaga said it was “a couple years” between when she made that wish list doodle and when she signed her first record deal, sharing a picture of her at 19 holding a sheaf of papers in front of a wall of gold records wearing a not-very-Gaga ensemble of white strappy sandals, a red skirt and a grey tank top with white suspenders.
While she wasn’t the Gaga we know now back then, the singer said that creating her performance persona was a way for her to “become something that I felt I didn’t already have inside of me. Sort of like the star I always wanted to be. I knew I had musical talent and I had things I wanted to say.”
Gaga weighed in on was the difference between Stefani and Gaga — “Stefani is me, the artist, the creator, and Lady Gaga is my creation” — with the singer saying that Gaga represented the kind of star she dreamed of being after a childhood of deep insecurity. Gaga said that her stage persona was created after some “really rough experiences” in New York, both professional and personal, that were so challenging she felt she had to change her name.
“It was like a new beginning. But I created something that felt exciting and artistic,” she said. “And creative and imaginative, but also safer than the I think the way I feel… Because Gaga was pursuing and experiencing fame… it was kind of like this thing where I could safely leave behind all the hard stuff that I went through and inhabit a new persona of someone that was really strong and resilient and tough that you wouldn’t want to mess with.”
Once fame did come, Gaga said, the duality of being both Stefani and Gaga was the bigger challenge and “figuring out how to integrate those two things, psychologically, for me was like my big forever work.”
Curious if that old saw about an artist having to suffer to create great art, Colbert asked if Gaga, who he noted seems like she’s in a very good, happy place at the moment, can be as productive as she was when she was in the midst of struggle. “Without a doubt,” Gaga said, as Colbert wondered if she had to “carry trauma” in order to speak to it.
“No, no, no,” Gaga said emphatically. “But I understand why people feel this way. This is an age-old tale of the tortured artist suffering for their art.” She quoted her longtime friend and make-up artist telling her, “‘I see you and I see how much love has changed your life,’” in reference to Gaga’s clear joy with fiancé Michael Polansky. “He’s my best friend in the whole world,” she said of her Mayhem collaborator, who she was introduced to through her mom.
Speaking of moms, when Colbert asked about what kinds of projects Gaga would like to work on next, including whether she might ever consider Broadway, the 39-year-old singer got real about her the couple’s future plans. “I would like to do many things,” she said. “But what I really want is to be a mom. That’s my next starring role, I hope.”
The interview with Gaga was taped when the singer stopped by the Late Show several weeks ago to celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary, where she performed a moving, stripped-down version of her Mayhem song “Vanish Into You” and then stuck around to teach Colbert “The Dead Dance” choreorgraphy.
In addition to his “Dead Dance” choreo, Colbert also asked Gaga during the chat if she thought he could pull off any of her iconic looks, including chopped bangs and bleached eyebrows. “When in Rome,” she laughed about that look and Colbert’s shot at the Lady in Red from the “Abracadabra” video. Lifelong New Yorker Gaga agreed to play a lightning round breaking down her allegiances, picking the Yankees over the Mets, the Knicks over the Nets or Liberty and choosing 72nd Street (and specifically Gray’s Papaya hot dog stand) as the best corner in the city, Ray’s Pizza as the best slice and the L as the very worst subway line.
As for her favorite bagel order, as a true New Yorker, Gaga said there were actually two: the TBB (toasted butter bagel) or the whole deal (lox, cream cheese, tomato, salt and pepper. One thing she would absolutely not do is fall for the “trap” of naming her favorite boroughs in order.
Gaga’s four-night run at London’s O2 Arena will wind down on Saturday (Oct. 4) before moving on to Co-Op Live in Manchester, England on Oct. 7.
Watch Gaga on Colbert below.
