Out of the four versions of the musical romantic drama film A Star Is Born, Barbra Streisand is not a fan of the latest starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
The EGOT winner talked to The Project on Sunday (Aug. 15) about the all-star lineup while promoting her latest album, Release Me 2. The original version of A Star Is Born premiered in 1937, starring Janet Gaynor as a rising movie star, with Fredric March as her co-star. Judy Garland and James Mason starred in the 1954 remake, when Garland played a rising movie star in a musical. Streisand and Kris Kristofferson’s 1976 box-office hit depicted Streisand as a rising singer-songwriter, and guitar player and Kristofferson as a disheveled rock star; it received four nominations at the 49th Oscars, winning one award for best original song with the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 song “Evergreen,” and one Grammy nod for best original score written for a motion picture or a television special.
Streisand recalls watching Garland’s performance and wondering how she could follow it up, but decided to change the character. However, when she watched Gaga and Cooper’s performance, she thought the 2018 version was too similar to her 1976 version.
“At first, when I heard it was going to be done again, it was supposed to be Will Smith and Beyoncé, and I thought, ‘That’s interesting. Really make it different again — different kind of music, integrated actors.’ I thought that was a great idea,” she said in the new interview. “So I was surprised when I saw how alike it was to the version that I did in 1976.”
The 79-year-old superstar didn’t take the similarities as a compliment, but believed the new movie was “the wrong idea” while recognizing it as “a big success.” In 2018, Gaga and Cooper became the latest pair to remake A Star is Born, which, like Streisand and Kristofferson’s version, also won best original song with the historical Hot 100 chart-topper “Shallow” at the 2019 Oscars, where it was nominated for eight awards including best picture, best actor (Cooper) and best actress (Gaga). The movie also won four Grammy Awards at both the 2019 and 2020 awards shows, including best pop duo/group performance for “Shallow” and best compilation soundtrack for visual media.
“I can’t argue with success, but I don’t care so much about success as I do originality,” Streisand said.
She recreated the magic from her version of A Star is Born when she brought out her beloved co-star Kristofferson to her July 2019 show at London’s Hyde Park for a performance of “Evergreen.”
Watch Streisand discuss A Star Is Born below.
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