An Italian dialogue coach who worked on the set of the upcoming drama House of Gucci says that Lady Gaga’s ‘Italian’ accent isn’t that great — and it sounds much more like Russian.
The 35-year-old singer stars as Maurizio Gucci’s ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani in the film, and has divulged that she ‘lived’ as the character for a year and a half — an even spoke with an accent nonstop for nine months.
But Italian actress Francesca De Martini — who worked as the on-set dialect coach for Salma Hayek on the movie — thinks Gaga’s accent could have used some work.
‘I feel bad saying this, but her accent is not exactly an Italian accent, it sounds more Russian,’ she told The Daily Beast.
An Italian dialogue coach who worked on the set of the upcoming drama House of Gucci says that Lady Gaga’s ‘Italian’ accent isn’t that great
The 35-year-old singer stars as Maurizio Gucci’s ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani in the film, and has divulged that she ‘lived’ as the character for a year and a half
But Italian actress Francesca De Martini, who worked as the on-set dialect coach for Salma Hayek on the movie, said: ‘Her accent is not exactly an Italian accent, it sounds more Russian’
De Martini, who had auditioned to act in the movie, was hired as a dialogue coach once production was already underway.
‘I was really surprised to be called for this, and I was surprised there wasn’t a dialogue coach on set,’ she said.
She explained that Salma Hayek, who plays Giuseppina ‘Pina’ Auriemma, had shot for one day before asking for a coach.
‘I think she heard the accent wasn’t right and she was worried — she wanted to do well,’ she added.
Though De Martini was there for Hayek, she couldn’t help but hear Lady Gaga during filming.
‘I was noticing when I was on set, because I had earphones working with Salma and hearing what she was saying so I could help her to get it right, so I could hear Lady Gaga as well,’ she said.
De Martini, who had auditioned to act in the movie, was hired as a dialogue coach for Sakma Hayek once production was already underway
Gaga has previously explained how she inhabited her character throughout filming, even when the cameras weren’t rolling
Gaga has previously explained how she inhabited her character throughout filming, even when the cameras weren’t rolling.
‘I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her [Reggiani] for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that,’ she told British Vogue. ‘Off camera. I never broke. I stayed with her.
But, she added, ‘It was nearly impossible for me to speak in the accent as a blonde. I instantly had to dye my hair.’
Gaga didn’t say whether she’d worked with a dialect coach, though she didn’t explain how she arrived at her accent in the film.
‘I started with a specific dialect from Vignola, then I started to work in the higher class way of speaking that would have been more appropriate in places like Milan and Florence,’ she said.
Despite her dedication, when the trailer debuted online, viewers were baffled by the way Gaga spoke, with some calling her accent ‘awful’ and ‘horrible’
‘In the movie, you’ll hear that my accent is a little different depending on who I’m speaking to,’ she added.
In a later interview with the New York Times, she added: ‘I would be talking like this with my mother, with friends, so that I, Stefani, could speak like this and it would be totally natural.
‘It’s like muscle memory, so that when you’re in the scene, the accent is not in the way of the visceral quality of what’s happening in the room.
‘If I had a jazz show next week, if I don’t rehearse ahead of time, my voice is not ready for the show. My approach to this was not different than my commitment to music.
‘But I want to be clear: I don’t think it’s about sensationalizing method acting or being in character as the only way to do things. It would have been harder for me to go in and out of character on set than to stay in it.’
‘I don’t think it’s about sensationalizing method acting or being in character as the only way to do things,’ Gaga said
‘I spoke with an accent for nine months,’ Gaga said. ‘Off camera. I never broke. I stayed with her’
Despite her dedication, when the trailer debuted online, viewers were baffled by the way Gaga spoke, with some calling her accent ‘awful’ and ‘horrible.’
‘The house of gucci trailer came on and my mom just burst out laughing when she heard lady gaga’s accent,’ wrote one Twitter user.
‘House of gucci gonna be so good but [I know] imma have a hard time getting past lady gaga’s dexter’s laboratory accent,’ quipped another.
‘They say Lady Gaga is doing an Italian accent in Gucci but I’m not convinced,’ wrote a third, while a fourth tweeted: ‘It sounds more eastern European than Mediterranean or even Italian.’