Lady Gaga Sets the Record Straight On Bradley Cooper Romance Rumors

Lady Gaga opened up to Oprah about her relationship with Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born, her new mission as an artist and more for Elle's December cover story, out Wednesday (Nov. 6).

"Quite frankly I think the press is very silly," the superstar told Oprah regarding the rumors that swirled around her and Cooper in the wake of the Oscar-winning musical. "I mean, we made a love story. For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on. And we worked hard on it, we worked for days. We mapped the whole thing out–it was orchestrated as a performance.

During the interview, Gaga also looked back on her infamous meat dress moment from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, and how her perspective on her artistry has evolved since then.

"Well, the meat dress, quite frankly, I didn't think it was going to be as shocking to everyone as it was," she said of the moment, which she used to make a statement about the military's anti-LGBT don't ask, don't tell policy. "But that's just me. I have a sort of eccentric brain, so for me, I was like, 'Of course this makes sense.'…For me that wasn't shocking; it was shocking to the world." 

However, Gaga explained that her mission in life, and as a performer, is no longer to simply shock or "bemuse" people into a "state of confusion where they can't look away."

"And I have to say," she continued, "it was quite recently — after doing A Star is Born, and working with Bradley Cooper, and my experience even with winning an Oscar — I sort of just went to myself, 'You have a much greater mission on this earth than to freak the hell out of people. Your mission is to give people a form of love through your art that lifts them up.'"

Check out photos of Gaga from her Elle cover shoot below.