Lady Gaga’s acting career took a big leap forward when she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in 2018. A star is bornfor which she was nominated for Best Leading Actress at the Oscars, while also quietly breaking another record. A star is born has been remade three times since the original 1937 iteration, depicting the tragic love affair between a young actress and/or singer who falls in love and gets her big break with the help of a fading celebrity whose fame is fading.
Cooper also received an Oscar nomination this year when he and Gaga told a touching love story. showing the personal and professional struggles of the characters as individuals and together. The story is also reworked to focus on the two protagonists’ careers in country rock music, as the exact nature of the characters’ genre of stardom often changes with each iteration. Other details changed between each remake of A star is bornbut one thing about the female lead remained constant — until Gaga took the stage.
A Star Is Born (2018) is the only version in which the female protagonist is not named Esther
Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born character is a departure from the tradition of Gaynor, Garland and Streisand
Before Gaga, the female lead of A star is born was played by Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand; In the films of the three actresses, the character’s first name is Esther. So Gaga’s film strangely broke tradition with her playing a character named Ally. The male protagonist’s name has been changed over the years, as has Esther’s surname and stage name – but she was officially always Esther before 2018.
|
A star is born Film by year |
Main actors |
Names of the main characters |
|---|---|---|
|
1937 |
Janet Gaynor and Fredric March |
Esther Victoria Blodgett and Norman Maine |
|
1954 |
Judy Garland and James Mason |
Esther “Vicki Lester” Blodgett and Norman Maine |
|
1976 |
Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson |
Esther Hoffman and John Norman Howard |
|
2018 |
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper |
Ally (no last name) and Jack Maine |
The team behind the newest A star is born possibly chose Ally as their star’s name because it sounds more modern, offering a stronger stamp on the character as she becomes a musical star in the story. As she achieves megastar status, Ally and her manager decide that she will be known mononymously while promoting her music. This casting change helps the fictional music producers, but otherwise, it’s a moderately unnecessary change, especially when the name has been consistent for so long.
A Star Is Born’s name change adds little to Lady Gaga’s character
Lady Gaga’s ally fulfills the same narrative role as Esthers before her
Ultimately, the name Ally neither adds nor takes away from Gaga’s version of the character. She may seem younger or more saccharine than the seemingly old-fashioned Esther, but she is still the same star who is about to have a series of lucky breaks but is always faced with losing the love of her life due to his failed career in A star is bornis ending. The name is equally irrelevant to the powerful performance Gaga gave during her turn with A star is bornwhich prepared her for exciting new opportunities that we are still seeing unfold.