Yahoo Movies Bullet Train director explains why Lady Gaga role didn't work out
Filmmaker David Leitch assembled quite the starry cast for Bullet Train, his summer popcorn movie about several assassins duking it out on a high-speed locomotive in Japan. But the ensemble could've glistened like the moons of Chromatica.
The director, known for action films like Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2, confirmed what EW had previously reported: Lady Gaga was once in early talks to join Bullet Train. Those talks, however, quickly fell apart, thanks to House of Gucci.
"It really all came down to her schedule with the Ridley [Scott] film," Leitch tells EW in an interview. "There were short discussions and then, this isn't going to work because she was preparing for the Ridley movie [House of] Gucci. They shot right before us and overlapped with us and it really didn't work."
Scott Garfield/Sony; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic 'Bullet Train' director David Leitch confirms Lady Gaga was almost in his movie, about several assassins fighting on a high-speed train.
Bullet Train, now opening in theaters Aug. 5, stars Brad Pitt as an assassin codenamed Ladybug. "This is a guy who's really trying to be a better person," Leitch explains. "This world of all these sadists and assassins, he's trying to maybe get away from that and justify to himself why he still exists in that world."
His handler, played by Sandra Bullock, tasks Ladybug with retrieving a briefcase aboard a high-speed train in Japan, but the seemingly simple assignment puts him in the crosshairs of other trained killers, some of them portrayed by Brian Tyree Henry, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, and Bad Bunny. Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz, and Karen Fukuhara also make appearances in the film.
So, who was Gaga, the Mother Monster, supposed to play? Reports had stated she was up for the part now occupied by Bullock. Leitch, however, just says, "I'm going to leave that a mystery."
Lady Gaga went on to star in the Oscar-nominated House of Gucci as Patrizia Reggiani, the woman who falls in love with, marries, and later has assassinated Gucci heir Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). She also recently put out the song she recorded for Top Gun: Maverick, so she's doing just fine.
We can still daydream about the pop diva actually raining daggers down on her enemies, like in her "Rain on Me" video.
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