Bradley Cooper approached Jack White to play the lead male role in ‘A Star is Born’.
The 43-year-old star directed the remake and ultimately starred opposite Lady Gaga’s Ally Maine alter ego as singer/songwriter Jackson Maine but he admitted he had contacted a "musician" to play the lead in his Oscar-tipped movie without naming any names.
However, Variety has now confirmed that the person in question is former White Stripes frontman Jack White.
Speaking to the publication, Cooper said: "I saw this other person that I wanted to do this, who is an actual musician. But [the studio] wouldn’t make the movie with him."
‘A Star is Born’ has been remade three times, first with Judy Garland playing the lead in 1954 and then again with Barbara Streisand in 1976, and Chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Toby Emmerich, confessed that the highly-anticipated script was rewritten several times by Cooper to give it a new angle which massively paid off.
Emmerich said: "The first ending that I read, [Jackson] actually swims out into the ocean, where he commits suicide. The script that we had when he started shooting, he rides his motorcycle. It was more like the Kris Kristofferson ending in the 1976 version with the Ferrari … but Bradley changed his mind and came to see me and pitched the idea of what he ended up shooting. I think he was right. When I watch the movie now, I can’t imagine it ending any other way."