Thirty seconds before Bradley Cooper took the Oscars stage to perform "Shallow" with Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez gave Cooper some last-minute advice to help alleviate his stage fright. Lopez revealed what happened in the exchange on her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez's Instagram Live after the ceremony, including what she told the visibly anxious actor.
"He seemed a little nervous," Lopez started. "I just whispered, I said, ‘The song is so beautiful. When they hear the first few notes, they’re going to start applauding. So don’t worry. Just deliver the song.’ He was like, ‘I got it, I got it, okay.’" Cooper then went up and gave a now-viral performance with Gaga that became one of the biggest and most acclaimed moments of the night.
Lopez herself praised their duet, telling Rodriguez that it was an "amazingly beautiful, intimate performance. To have a front row seat to that was so special."
Cooper talked about being nervous about singing at the Oscars long before Academy Award night. "I'm sure I'll be terrified," Cooper told E! News at the Director's Guild Awards in early February. He said he had that same kind of fear before he performed the song with Gaga at her Las Vegas residency. "That was terrifying," he said. "I just had to, like, zen out and just pray that I wouldn't ruin her show."
Backstage at the Oscars after her win for Best Original Song, Lady Gaga talked about the advice Cooper had himself given her during their Oscars rehearsal of the number. Cooper said, “'Let's just drop a little bit of joy,'” Gaga told press. “It turns out, joy did a whole lot for me.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
