CULTURE

Could Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper EGOT (Together)?

Anything is possible.

Dec. 7, 2018

Photograph by Clay Enos.

If you would have told us back in 2010 that Bradley Cooper, former Sex and the City guest star and All About Steve actor, and Lady Gaga, the singer who resembled the offspring of Grace Jones and a disco ball, would each possibly have a shot of EGOTing, we might have expressed some reservations. If you told us that they’d somehow help each other win a good chunk of those awards as a team, well, we’d think you were suffering from some sort of fever dream.

Alas, with the Golden Globes nominations for A Star Is Born serving as a prelude to inevitable multiple Oscar nominations for each, along with today’s announcement that the movie’s marquee song “Shallow” racked up Grammy nominations, it’s looking like, well, it could be very, very possible.

Indeed, the awards math here is pretty simple, but let’s break it down.

Grammy Awards

Gaga, of course, already has six Grammys on her mantle, so she doesn’t have to worry too much. Yet “Shallow,” which she cowrote, now gives her four more chances in the Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and Best Song Written for Visual Media (it seems almost a lock for the last). Cooper only sang on the song, but is still eligible for the Record and Duo/Group Performance trophies. Of course, if it fails to win an award, well, you know, he could always release a Jackson Maine concept album down the road.

Oscars

Cooper already has four nominations under his belt (three as an actor and a fourth as a producer for American Sniper). He’s reaching “overdue” status already, and, indeed, he may be the favorite to win the Best Actor award this year. Likewise, he’s expected to get a nomination for Best Director, and, as producer, would win a trophy if Star wins Best Picture. There’s also the possibility that multiple songs from the soundtrack could notch a nomination in Best Original Song, though none that the studio is pushing were written by Cooper. He also wouldn’t win for Shallow, as the award is for songwriters.

Gaga, however, would receive a nomination if “Shallow” (or any other Star song) gets a nod. She’s also widely expected to get a Best Actress nomination as well (her biggest competition remains Glenn Close, who, fun fact, would finally EGOT herself if she wins …indeed, Close has three Tonys, Emmys, and —yes—Grammys each already).

Tony Awards

Well, here’s where things get speculative, but would it be out of this world to imagine this version of Star being transformed into a Broadway musical? Let’s imagine Cooper is nice enough to ask Gaga to coproduce, and, then, bam, they could both win awards if it won Best Musical.

Cooper already has one acting Tony nomination under his belt for 2015’s The Elephant Man, and he could always return to the stage in the future.

Gaga, too, has talked about aspirations of acting in a musical. Just recently, she said her dream role would be Maureen in Rent, but, hey, we could also imagine Gaga just writing her own musical one day.

Emmy Awards

Gaga and Cooper might have to part ways here, unless, say, they put together some very special 25th-anniversary A Star Is Born TV special one day. This one project can only get them so far; still, it’s not hard to imagine them winning an Emmy on their own.

Gaga already has three nominations for her various specials and Super Bowl half-time show. She could also always ring up her former American Horror Story producer Ryan Murphy to dream her up some meaty TV role, even if only in the Guest Actress category.

Cooper has no Emmy nominations (surprisingly), but he always has the option of, say, writing, directing, and producing an HBO limited series.

Perhaps we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here, but it’s not hard to imagine that in a few months’ time both could be at least halfway to an EGOT.