Lady Gaga felt "ugly" at school.
Lady Gaga
The 32-year-old singer-and-actress - whose real name is Stefani Germanotta - relates to the aspiring singer, Ally, who she portrays in 'A Star is Born' because of her own self-doubt, which stemmed from being bullied when she was young.
She told Variety: "I see so much of myself when I was younger, when I did not believe in myself, when I was bullied in school, I felt ugly, and my only escape was music and that's why I started to sing and write songs and act was because I wanted an escape from all of that pain.
"Little Stefani right now, she's very humbled and she's very surprised."
Though the 'Edge of Glory' singer felt pressured to live up to expectations when she first found fame, she's always done things her own way and stayed true to herself.
She said: "I always flipped it on its head. If they wanted me to look sexy, I wanted to look weird. I always wanted to define what it meant to be me and I always had something to say and I always made sure that no one stood in my way when I wanted to say it."
But it was still "very important" to Gaga that her character was different to her real self.
She added: "Ally goes through these things as well as she's navigating her career, and it was very important to me that this character was completely different from me.
"I hope the message of love between them and believing in someone...A hundred people there could be in one room and 99 don't believe in you, but just one believes and it can change your whole life and Jackson believes in Ally and his belief in her changes her life."
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