Salma Hayek and Lady Gaga began working on “House of Gucci” before director Ridley Scott even called, “Action!”
In the upcoming film, Gaga plays Patrizia Reggiani, who orchestrated the 1995 killing of her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), an heir to the Gucci fashion empire. Hayek portrays a clairvoyant who was convicted of helping plan the murder.
“We were talking on the phone and she was already Patrizia. … Her accent was perfect,” Hayek says. “I think we had a lot of fun reliving scenes that are not even in the movie and she is the ultimate professional, and I could not wait to get on that set. We really couldn’t wait to get on the set and just do it and do it together and play off of each other.”
“Gucci” marked Hayek’s return to work last month after battling a near-fatal case of COVID during the early days of the pandemic. “It was the perfect job to just get back into it,” she says.
Working with Gaga sounded perfect, too.
“She is incredibly talented, incredibly smart. And she has on top of all that, extra abilities that not every brilliant actor has, which is she’s good with the accent,” Hayek says. “Of course, she has an amazing ear. She is extraordinary improvising, and not everybody has that. She really embodies the character. Her level of commitment — I’ve only seen maybe once or twice somebody commit to a character like she does. And she’s also a great team player.”
Hayek said “it was a dream” to work with Scott. “I was expecting nothing but the best from Ridley, so it would have been hard to be surprised in any way, but what I was not expecting is how much fun it is to work with him,” she said. “I was expecting it of Lady Gaga, but he is a lot of fun on the set. And how much freedom, you feel a lot of freedom and you feel so safe. His attention to detail, nothing misses his eye — nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. From before doing the scenes and also during the scenes, he misses nothing.”
Hayek also enjoyed putting on some weight for the role. “I was in Italy and it was like a dream come true,” she remembers. “You’re in Rome and you’re in a movie and it’s the rounder you are, the better it is for your character. That to me was nirvana. I swear I would order with a smile on my face: ‘I’ll have the pasta again.’ I love pasta. And it would come and it would be like guilt-free and — Oh, my God — it was delicious.”
Manori Ravindran contributed to this report.