Lady Gaga ‘drew from experience of sexual assault’ for House of Gucci

Lady Gaga has opened up about how her life fed into her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in new film House of Gucci, explaining that she drew from her experience of being sexually assaulted.

Last year, the singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, courageously spoke to Oprah Winfrey about being sexually assaulted when she was 19 years old and consequently developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

She said that the attacks were carried out by someone she knew from her childhood.

In a new interview, the artist detailed how that experience and other traumatic events that she has been through in her life impacted her performance in House of Gucci, in which she plays the wife of businessman Maurizio Gucci, played by Adam Driver.

‘I would say, what was the most relevant about my personal experiences was the trauma that I’ve been through in my life. The various major events that harmed my insides,’ she told BBC News.

‘The poison of experiencing a man’s world all the time, as a woman. Being in the music industry, I would say less of the hustle as part of her character, but more of being assaulted when I was 19 by a music producer.’

Lady Gaga recalled how she felt ‘endlessly controlled by men’ in her career as she ‘tried to find my own voice’ and ‘empowerment as a woman’.

‘I took from every trigger point that I could find, and I allowed myself to experience, I could cry talking about it, to experience survival mode all the time,’ she stated.

The 35-year-old added that she used various incidents that she has been through ‘at different times in different moments in the script’.

She acknowledged that while it may not be the best method for other actors, it was what ‘compelled’ her to perform this character, as she thought to herself: ‘Well, there’s simply no other answer for why she would have her husband murdered’.

House of Gucci also stars Jared Leto as Paolo Gucci, Jeremy Irons as Rodolfo Gucci, Salma Hayek as Giuseppina Auriemma and Al Pacino as Aldo Gucci.

The film is based on a true story, which led to a highly-publicised trial in 1998, when Patrizia was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband.

House of Gucci will hit cinemas on November 26.

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