I’ve done my best to completely ignore Bradley Cooper and his Oscar campaign for Maestro. Most awards shows have done the same! I mean, he’s still getting nominated, but that man has not won anything as an actor or a director. Maestro was so clearly Bradley Cooper going down the Oscarbait checklist too: transformation via cheap-and-offensive prosthetics (check); playing a historical figure (check); playing someone gay/bi (check); making wild claims about how much he struggled and how long it took for him to “learn” certain skills for the role (check). Anyway, I find the whole thing offensive, and this interview is basically the only thing I’ve liked about his whole Oscar campaign. Of course, he’s talking about A Star Is Born and not Maestro! B-Coop chatted with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation about the different singers attached to ASIB before Lady Gaga signed on. For more than a year, Bradley was supposed to make ASIB with Beyonce!

Bradley Cooper had a memorable experience meeting JAY-Z and Beyoncé. The actor, 49, met with the powerhouse couple to get the Renaissance songstress to play Ally, an aspiring singer, in A Star is Born, before the role ultimately went to Lady Gaga.

Cooper explained that he pitched Beyoncé for the role to studio executive Greg Silverman, who told him he would do it if he could get the singer as the lead and “make it for under $25 million.”

“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember. I’m not kidding. And I was freaking [out]. I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her,” he said during a recent interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.

“It was crazy. She was incredible and so was he, and we developed it for like a year together. I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time. Then that fell through.”

Cooper said he then envisioned Adele for the role, but she only texted him back once and was “busy.”

After hearing Gaga, 37, sing at a benefit concert, Cooper — who ended up directing the film and playing country singer Jackson “Jack” Maine — knew he had found his leading lady.

“It just blew the doors off of the whole place, and it was in that moment where it was like, ‘That’s it. What was I even thinking?’ And then I asked to meet her,” explained Cooper.

[From People]

Not Jay-Z watching Judge Judy!!!! LMAO. Jay doesn’t have his afternoon “stories,” he has Judge Judy. I wonder if Beyonce ever watches with him or if that’s just Jay’s thing. Anyway, yes, Beyonce was attached to A Star Is Born for a while and we never really got an answer for why she eventually left the project. I think she was just too busy for it and she didn’t like Bradley’s vibe, but who knows. They parted on good terms and I do think Lady Gaga was probably a better choice for it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.