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Lady Gaga says she’s going to take time off from music.
“I’m going to take a rest,” the pop icon told a Toronto Film Festival press conference for her Netflix film, Gaga 5’2″. She’s not saying how long the break will be. “It doesn’t mean I won’t be creating. It doesn’t mean I don’t have some things up my sleeve,” she added.
But Gaga said she wants to “slow down for a moment, for some healing. Because that’s important.” She added that her Super Bowl performance this year, as much as it was a tribute to her fans, also marked a personal and professional milestone. “This is my most important and favorite thing I do, is to entertain people and to make them happy,” she said.
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Gaga added that the Super Bowl performance and the Netflix film, debuting in Toronto on Friday night, is a “hedge of protection on my legacy of the past ten years. It’s a nice place to be, because I’m surrounded by wonderful people.”
Gaga 5’2″ takes fans into the world of Stefani Joanne Germanotta, with Moukarbel’s camera following the pop icon as she faces mixed reviews over her Artpop album and deadlines to deliver its 2016 follow-up, Joanne. A reflective Gaga looks back on her earlier music work and image, as she tries to define a new artistic path.
The Netflix film also touches on Gaga’s battle with chronic pain, an experience that had the pop artist tearing up during her presser. “It’s okay… It’s hard. But it’s liberating too,” she said at one point, overcome with emotion.
Gaga 5’2″ director Chris Moukarbel talked about filming key scenes where the pop artist is battling chronic pain, without him or her being able to do much about it. “It was incredibly hard, on a basic fundamental human level, to be near someone experiencing pain like that. There’s nothing you can do, beyond filming,” he said.
“I felt I needed to continue to roll. She was very aware of people struggling with similar chronic pain. She’s not even sure how to deal with it,” he added. Gaga, returning to the subject, said exposing her battle with chronic pain in Gaga 5’2″ in part helps her fans know her life as a celebrity isn’t perfect, and that she empathizes with their own struggles.
“There’s an element and a very strong piece of me that believes pain is a microphone. My pain does me no good unless I transform it into something that is,” she argued. Gaga 5’2″ will have its world premiere on Friday night, with the pop artist set to perform on stage after the screening.
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