Was Lady Gaga in The Sopranos? What did singer and actress say about her screen debut as HBO series turns 25

As HBO series The Sopranos, one of the first forays into proper prestige television, turns 25 this week, we revisit one of the famous faces you may not have known appeared in the show.

It’s hard to believe, but global music mega-star Lady Gaga featured in the third season of the hit show, seven years before she got famous, when she was still known as Stefani Germanotta.

The singer has since reflected on her screen debut, explaining where she went wrong. Now, with a huge discography under her belt, Gaga has made a return to acting, with another huge role coming this year.

Who did Lady Gaga play in The Sopranos?

Lady Gaga’s acting debut didn’t turn into the career break that she may have hoped it would be. In fact, the singer didn’t even get a credit for the role of ‘Girl at Swimming Pool #2’.

She featured in the brief role in the season three episode nine episode The Telltale Moozadell which aired in the US in December 2001. She plays a girl from AJ and Meadow Sopranos’ high school who sits by the school’s pool with two friends, drinking and smoking as they watch AJ and two others as they go for a swim.

She then laughs along as AJ and his pals throw everything from sports equipment and files to school trophies into the pool. The scene in which she appears lasts for around 90 seconds and she had no lines. Whilst it didn’t launch her career, Stefani Germanotta would go on to become more famous than all of The Sopranos cast following the release of her debut album The Fame under her stage name Lady Gaga, in 2008.

What did Lady Gaga say about her Sopranos cameo?

Speaking of her first acting role 20 years later in 2021, Gaga reflected on what she did wrong in her performance. She told EW: “When I look back on that scene I can see exactly what I did wrong … I didn't know how to listen in a scene. I was supposed to laugh, and it was sort of like, cue, laugh.... I see it and I go, 'oh, that's not a real laugh!”

She also said she had “grown a lot as an actor”, and that’s certainly true as the star has since appeared in several popular films and shows and even won an Oscar.

What else has Lady Gaga starred in?

The Sopranos was Gaga’s only acting role before her name change and rise to worldwide fame - she has since had small roles in Gossip Girls, Machete Kills, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but her first big acting role was as The Countess in season five of anthology series American Horror Story.

In 2018 she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in musical remake A Star is Born, bagging an Oscar for Best Original Song (Shallow), and a nomination for Best Actress. 

In 2021 she joined an ensemble cast which included Al Pacino, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, and Jared Leto, for crime biopic House of Gucci, and she is due to co-star in Joker sequel Folie à Deux due out later this year.