I Was an Extra in the Biggest Scene in 'A Star Is Born'—and Here's What Happened

Before Gaga came out, they were hyping us up by getting the crowd to sing Gaga songs. But then they were like, "OK, maybe getting you to sing Gaga songs was a mistake. What we really need from you is to pretend this is not Lady Gaga. You do not know this person. She is not the pop star you know and love. This is just some girl; you’re curious but not that enthused. Do not shout things. Do not go wild. Lady Gaga does not exist in this universe."

We saw Gaga and Bradley do their scene probably about 18 times [over the course of both days]. They had internal mikes, but they turned the big amplifying mikes off; it wasn’t a full-on concert. People [outside the venue] were sending drones in trying to record the music—the crew caught them and explained, "We actually need you to be quite quiet, because we have to play the music so the people onstage can hear it, but soft enough that these drones won’t pick it up. You’re probably not going to hear anything." [After the filming] friends would be like, "I'm so excited. Can you hum the song for me?” I’d say, “Actually, I can't."

On the end of the first day, I went to the bathroom and whipped around the corner really fast; I slammed face-first into an absolute tree of a human being—it was Bradley Cooper! He almost knocked me on my butt. He was very tall, which I didn't realize. (I was there for Gaga; I’m not an obsessive Bradley Cooper fan.) I was taken aback and was just like, “Oh, sorry.” And he went, “Oh, sorry.” And I said, “No, I’m sorry.” We kind of got in this sorry war, which was funny. He went, “Thank you for being there. How’s it going? Are you having fun?” And I said, “Yeah, it’s really good. I’m excited to be here.” He was like, “Oh, great, thank you.” And I went, “No, thank you.” And he went, “No, thank you.” He started laughing, and I got flustered and mumbled, “OK, I have to pee now.” I ran off, so embarrassed. He was very nice.

The second day they took us up into the higher stands to shoot again. (We'd only paid $12 for the first day, but they basically said, “Anyone who’s here today can come back tomorrow if they want to.”) You don’t end up seeing Jamie and me in the movie then, either, because there’s a flash of a spotlight [when Gaga walks past us in the scene]. It was cool because they did a couple takes and she walked by us over and over and over again. At one point she was standing, waiting for the take to start, and she kind of looked up and Jamie and I went, “Hey, girl.” She’s known Jamie longer, so she definitely recognized Jamie. I haven’t seen Gaga in a couple years, and I got a radical haircut since then, so she gave me this look. I saw both confusion and recognition. It was a very quick interaction, but very cute.

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