Jonah Hill thinks Lady Gaga's canned "100 people in a room" quote is proof enough that she's a good actor
Lady Gaga got roasted a bit recently (we weren’t innocent) for using variations on the same phrase over and over again on her A Star Is Born press tour. “There could be 100 people in a room, and 99 don’t believe in you. But all it takes is one,” she’s said (and said, and said). It’s easy to lob cries of artificiality at her in such a situation, or to chuckle at the pained expression on co-star Bradley Cooper’s face as he absorbs the same compliment time and again. Jonah Hill, another artist who had a breakout year, sees it a bit differently.
During a GQ Live talk this past weekend, Hill took an opportunity to praise Gaga for making the sentiment sound sincere every time. It’s not like stars give different answers at every interview, after all, and the ability to deliver your talking points with gusto counts for something. “When it was going around, I think it was from a place of mean intent,” he told the panel’s moderator. “But I thought to myself, damn, she really is an incredible actor. She’s delivering those same talking points every night and making them sound new. That’s acting.”
As we’ve seen a number of times, press junkets are exhausting for actors, so much so that even the most likable of performers can allow the tedium to get the best of them. Some, like weirdo legend Crispin Glover, simply recites verbatim pre-prepared answers to commonly asked questions in interviews, which, as he’ll point out, simply makes things easier for everyone.