‘The Jinx’: The Lady Gaga performance inspired by a true crime documentary
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(Credits: Far Out / Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Having already conquered the world of pop music, Lady Gaga has successfully branched out into acting. Her Oscar-nominated turn in Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born caught everyone’s attention, which she followed up with a more divisive appearance in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci. In 2024, she starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux, one of the most talked about films of the year. Of course, ‘talked about’ is probably the most diplomatic description for that movie, so let’s move on before we get in trouble.
On the small screen, Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) has been in two seasons of the hit anthology series American Horror Story. She played ‘The Countess’ in the show’s fifth season, subtitled ‘Hotel’, and then as the mythical figure Scáthach in the following season, Roanoke. Her performances were well received by critics and fans of the show alike, possibly because she based at least one of them on a real-life horror movie killer.
When talking with fellow actor Jamie Lee Curtis for Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series, Gaga revealed who she based The Countess on. “I would watch Robert Durst in The Jinx,” she told Curtis. “I would study the practical nature in which he was devious and evil. He has this extremely practical way of explaining how he’s going to conceal the fact that he’s dumped a body in a river and kept it in his house and cut up his best friend.”
The Jinx is a true crime documentary series that tells the story of controversial real estate magnate Robert Durst. Despite being linked to three separate murders, Durst was never convicted of any of the crimes until he began giving interviews for the show. Renewed interest in the cases, plus new evidence gathered by the filmmakers, eventually led to him being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his former friend, Susan Berman.
Another of Durst’s suspected victims, his 71-year-old neighbour Morris Black, was found dismembered in Galveston Bay. Durst later admitted to cutting Black up with various implements, and the way he described this process caught Gaga’s attention. “When he’s explaining to you, ‘Oh, I was drunk and I was high, and I thought, ‘What am I going to do with this body? I’ve got to cut it up.’’ It’s like, ‘I had to go to the store, I was going to make a sandwich, so I had to get the bread and then I had to pick up the ham,’” she said.
Adding: “It’s so kind of practical, so I let that inform me as the Countess, because if I was going to take a guy home and f–k him and then eat him, I wouldn’t know exactly how to do that.”
The Countess serves as one of the main antagonists in Hotel and as one of the residents of the titular boarding house. Not only is she a killer, but she and her various lovers also partake in gristly acts of cannibalism and human sacrifice. It’s easy to see how someone as gruesome as Durst could inform such a nasty character.
An actor’s ability to translate the things they encounter in real life into the work is one of their most important skills. Gaga clearly has this ability in spades, as she was able to turn a genuine villain into a captivating TV baddie.
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