The World According to Gaga

In the contemporary fashion dialogue, no celebrity is paid more lip service than Lady Gaga. Such is her reach that the Global Language Monitor recently revealed that “Lady Gaga” topped the list of the most searched fashion terms, with “no pants” a close third. The Moment recently caught up with the fashion plate du jour, who was surprisingly candid and dressed in mufti — an outfit of checked shirt, black tights and vertiginous heels that brought to mind Mary-Kate without the grande nonfat latte — to talk about everything from her new gig as a mouthpiece for M.A.C. and its AIDS fund to her constantly referring to herself in the third person.

Q: I have to say that meeting you is rather odd. It’s like interviewing Mr. T. What to call you?

A: [Laughs] Lady Gaga or Gaga is fine. Everyone calls me one of the two, and it’s very normal. I think it’s mostly about being in my world and understanding what I do. Everyone here is around the magic that happens when I work with, say, Terence Koh or Francesco Vezzoli or Frank Gehry. When you’re around me and really see that all I do is live and breathe for my work, it’s not strange, it’s just Gaga.

Got it. Before we turned on the tape recorder, I was talking to you about betrayal. Is that something you think about more than ever?

Absolutely. You have no idea. More than dealing with betrayal, though, what is really hard is that I have had to leave my past behind me. It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.

Why would you disconnect yourself from your past?

I left it behind because I had to. For many reasons, like drugs. It’s no secret that I have had problems with drugs in the past. And some places represent to me things in terms of my mental and physical health, so you learn to move on, to preserve what your mission in life is, and my greater mission is my fans.

Really? That sounds very selfless for a pop star.

It is selfless. But, you know, I am very lucky. I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you — when life opens that door for you, I should say — I think it’s important to be giving, to return the love back. I have a spiritual guide, not a therapist but someone who in my mind is connected with a higher being, and he helps me a lot.

What does he bring to the party?

What I like about him is that he doesn’t speak to me like I am a normal person. He understands that I have an eccentric way of life and personality. And he also understands that I am famous, and I appreciate that. He tells me that I no longer serve my life in the normal way that people serve their life, that I must serve the greater good in my service to the universe. And for me, it’s my fans. I only serve my fans.

You were telling me earlier that you have been attached to M.A.C. since you were a young girl growing up in Manhattan. But did you not worry that being aligned to a makeup company, even one you love, would inevitably bring up questions about whether you could have the career you have without hair, makeup and styling?

Not at all. I don’t think I could live without hair, makeup and styling, let alone be the performer I am. I am a glamour girl through and through. I believe in the glamorous life and I live one. I don’t want anyone to separate who I am with my makeup on from who I am without it. I’m the same person.

What are those bruises on your arm?

You’ll laugh, but they’re welts. I burnt myself with a curling iron. Glamour, girl!

But, seriously, I love M.A.C. and I love the cause. I think it’s exciting that we have much more information about AIDS that we can share with the world. The most important thing for me, and why I chose to be in this campaign, is to remind people that it’s not a gay disease. Women around my age, between 18 and 24, and Cyndi [Lauper’s] bracket, who are increasingly at risk. I don’t think they chose us for those reasons alone, but if they did, then that’s good, too. Whatever it takes to eliminate the stereotypes about AIDS, that it’s always drug-related or the result of a promiscuous lifestyle.

Who were your glamour icons growing up?

I would say Leigh Bowery, Klaus Nomi, David Bowie, Grace Jones.

They all turned artifice into the sublime. How important is artifice to you?

Artifice, as in artificial?

No, as in a construct, a stratagem. I don’t know, that word implies artificial to me. I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way — artistically. I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way. You’ve definitely hitched your wagon to the art world, having worked with people like Terence and Francesco. I have never intentionally made any sorts of decisions in those ways. I just gravitate to those people, and I’m sure there will be others. To be completely honest, every relationship I have built is based on a genuine and authentic sharing of dreams and aesthetics.

As a celebrity, do you think there is an unfair expectation of you now to one-up yourself constantly at the point where most people are finding their artistic feet?

I think that anyone who is lucky enough to have a voice in the music industry should not be finding their feet in front of the whole world. I don’t like celebrities; I don’t hang out with them; I don’t relate to that life. I love to talk about art and fashion and the future and comment on society on what we can do to change people’s perception. I am very much like Francesco, and I really admire what he does. He is very — in my opinion, anyway — centered on perception and how to shift the perceptions of the audience.

How do you think you are doing that with your fans?

I think I have changed the way they look at and devour fame. It’s something that tastes a little too sweet but is not so difficult to swallow.

You say you are an acute assessor of fame. You of all people must know, then, that celebrity is fleeting. Doesn’t that scare the bejesus out of you?

Not in the book of Gaga.

Sorry? In the book of Gaga, fame is in your heart, fame is there to comfort you, to bring you self-confidence and worth whenever you need it. I want my fans to love themselves. It’s almost like I want to hypnotize them so when they hear my music they love themselves instantly.

Don’t you think it’s kind of creepy when you refer to yourself in the third person?

No. Not if you’re an artist, it’s not. I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans. And that way, I have to think about not what is best for my vagina but what is best for my fans and for me artistically. SOURCE: TimeMagazine