Anthony Behar

Adam Lambert dishes on auditioning for 'A Star is Born'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 3/19/21

A star was born.

It just wasn't Adam Lambert.

The American Idol alum was a guest this week on the "Brenda, Call Me!" podcast with Courtney Act and Vanity, where he revealed that he auditioned for the role of Ally's (Lady Gaga) best friend in the 2018 A Star is Born remake (h/t NME):

"It’s funny, I auditioned for that part in A Star Is Born? It was so funny to me, because they told me about it and they were like ‘She’s going to have like a gay best friend’ and I was like ‘Okay, that could be cute’ and then I got the script and it was like… he was a Latin American character, like he was a Latino character.

You know his name was Latino, a lot of the slang that he was using, he was calling her ‘Mami’ and all this stuff and I was like ‘Now how is this gonna work? Should I just not go to the audition? This is not my part.'"

The character's name is Ramon. The role went to Anthony Ramos, who has also starred on Broadway in Hamilton and will star in this summer's feature-length musical film In The Heights. In A Star is Born, Ally and Ramon work together at a catering hall before Ally catches the eye of rockstar Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper). Ramon is by Ally's side as their romance develops and her solo star rises.

The Cooper-directed film was nominated for eight Oscars, winning for best achievement in music written for motion pictures (original song) for "Shallow." Gaga became the first woman ever to claim an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA and Golden Globe because of her leading role.

Lambert has been plenty successful on his own, though. The 39-year-old stepped in as the lead vocalist for Queen—touring together on five separate occasions though a studio album has not been put out by this version of the legendary rock band. As a solo artist, Lambert has released four albums—most recently Velvet last March—was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 ("Whataya Want From Me").

During his conversation on the podcast, the Broadway veteran discussed his experience touring with Queen and teased a musical he is in the process of writing.

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