Lady Gaga 'studied animals to play' Patrizia Reggiani in 'House of Gucci'

Lady Gaga has been very open about how she "lived as" Patrizia Reggiani for 18 months and spoke strictly with an Italian accent for nine months for "House of Gucci," but her dedication to the role didn't end there.

Gaga explained the extent of her method acting to Jake Gyllenhaal for Variety's new cover:

"Since I was a little girl, I was so mercilessly bullied, and I had a really strict upbringing. So acting for me was a way to totally escape who I was. And I think I’ve done it my whole career with taking on the artistic persona of whatever music I’m writing and living inside my art. And for films, it’s different, but it’s not. 

"I studied animals to play her. I studied a house cat for the beginning of the film. And then at the funeral, when she sees Al Pacino’s character, she suddenly turns into a fox because she’s hunting now. And I watched foxes hunt and they’re really funny, because they hunt mice in the snow and they leap up and they burrow. I actually did exercises in my hotel room where I would be the animal. And then for that last scene, it was the panther. It was because the panther moves slowly, but then when it kills its prey, it is really violent and it’s really ugly, and then after, it cries.

"I chose these animals as a way to map the physicality of the character. What I feel in that moment is what she was feeling. The cameras float away. I’m not an actor that really knows where the camera is. But I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s super immersive, as if I’m in the middle of singing a song and the song doesn’t end until I decide it does."

"House of Gucci" is described as "inspired by the shocking true story of the family empire behind the Italian fashion house of Gucci. Spanning three decades of love, betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately murder, we see what a name means, what it’s worth, and how far a family will go for control."

More specifically, the loosely biographical drama charts the relationship between Reggiani (Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) after they marry and he infiltrates more and more in the family business. Once he files for divorce, Reggiani is driven mad and orchestrates a murder-for-hire plot that results in Maurizio's murder in March 1995.

Reggiani was convicted in 1998 and served 18 of her 26-year prison sentence before her 2016 release.

"I couldn’t not love her," Gaga told Gyllenhaal of Reggiani. "I almost find it interesting now that I haven’t heard from her, because she’s alive. I don’t know if she’s seen it. I don’t know what she thinks about it, but everyone around me said: 'I think this might be painful.'"

See more from their Variety cover below.