The Nightclub Interaction That Landed Andrew Dice Clay His Role In A Star Is Born

Most of the time, landing a big break in Hollywood requires being at the right place at the right time. And while there are certainly exceptions to this rule, Andrew Dice Clay's third billing role in "A Star is Born" is not one of them. The actor and comedian described how he landed the role as the father of Lady Gaga's character, Ally, while on an episode of Chris DiStefano's "Chrissy Chaos" podcast, and the story is about as "lightning in a bottle" as they come.

According to Dice, he bumped into the film's leading actor, Bradley Cooper, at a Los Angeles nightclub called The Troubadour. Dice mentioned to Cooper in passing that he enjoyed his performance in "American Sniper," but before he could walk away, Cooper's mother grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the conversation, as the Coopers were fans of Dice as well.

Dice's manager, Bruce Rubenstein, later e-mailed "A Star is Born" producer Todd Phillips about his client's "weirdly great" acting abilities. Not long after that, Dice was reunited with Cooper after their brief interaction at The Troubadour.

After Andrew Dice Clay's manager sent that fateful e-mail, Dice said: "We get a call. Bradley Cooper wants to sit with me. And all I talked about were my sons, for three hours, we're sitting there." The second meet-up seemingly went as well as the first because the next day, Cooper texted Dice, inviting him to meet the film's leading lady, Lady Gaga, in the recording studio.

Dice recalled talking to Lady Gaga about life on the road, recounting his own experience as a traveling comedian. The "Poker Face" singer told him she was acutely aware of his career thanks to her father, Joey Germanotta, who was a big fan of Dice's. The comedian — who had experience as a gigging drummer dating back to the 1970s — even sat in on the kit for one of the songs Lady Gaga was tracking at the studio.

"As this is happening, here comes Cooper, watching this. And he says, "Let's go in another studio, just the three of us.' So, he goes, 'Alright, Dice, I just want to try some scenes.' I go, 'Bradley, I haven't read the script yet. It's a thick script,'" Dice recalled on Chris DiStefano's podcast. Despite his hesitations, Dice said the scenes went off without a hitch.

Andrew Dice Clay meeting Bradley Cooper that fateful night at The Troubadour might have been a coincidence, but he certainly made the most out of the meetings that followed. Two days after the comedian spent time jamming and running lines with the leading actors of "A Star Is Born," Cooper called Dice to offer him the role of Lorenzo. "I couldn't believe it," Dice recalled on "Chrissy Chaos." "It blew my mind. Third billing."

Prior to "A Star is Born," Dice's acting jobs were few and far between. His last critically acclaimed film was "Blue Jasmine," a Woody Allen joint featuring Hollywood giants like Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, and Sally Hawkins. Variety called Allen's decision to cast Dice "an especially offbeat and rewarding casting choice" in 2013. 

Dice beat out other bigwigs like Robert De Niro, John Turturro, and John Travolta for the role of Lorenzo. Speaking to Variety in 2018, Dice said: "These are major, major movie stars, and that's who's up for this. I'm glad it was me. Those guys work enough. So, I'm glad I got to play a dad." Dice and his "A Star is Born" castmates were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in 2019.