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Barbra Streisand Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY NETWORK

Barbra Streisand would have preferred Beyonce, Will Smith to Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga in 2018's 'A Star Is Born'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 8/16/21

A Star Is Born has been remade three times since its original 1937 premiere starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

Barbra Streisand played Esther Hoffman opposite Kris Kristofferson in the 1976 version. That film followed the beloved 1954 rendition with Judy Garland and James Mason. Streisand won a shared Oscar under the best original music category, and the film wasn't touched again until Bradley Cooper stepped in as director and co-writer in 2018.

Cooper also played the disheveled alcoholic Jackson Maine, who serves as the unlikely mentor to Lady Gaga's Ally.

"When I did A Star Is Born, I thought Judy Garland was so great in it," Streisand told Australia's The Sunday Project Sunday (Aug. 15). "I thought, oh my God, how am I gonna do this? I have to change it. I'll become a guitar-playing, singer-songwriter, and Kris Kristofferson is already a singer-songwriter, and we'll change the story a bit."

"At first, when I heard it was gonna be done again, it was supposed to be Will Smith and Beyonce," the 79-year-old Grammy, Emmy and Oscar winner continued. "I thought, that's interesting. You know, really make it different again. Different kind of music. Integrated actors. I thought that was a great idea, so I was surprised when I saw how alike it was the version that I did in 1976."

The Sunday Project host Lisa Wilkinson suggested the similarity between the 1976 and 2018 films was "probably a compliment to you," Streisand wasn't sold.

"I thought it was the wrong idea," she countered. "Look, it was a big success, so I can't argue with success, but I don't care so much about success as I do originality."

The overarching themes of A Star Is Born remained the same from 1937 to 2018 with small tweaks to the plot. The original 1937 movie was adapted into a 1954 musical. Garland embodied Esther Blodgett, an aspiring actress who meets Norman Maine (Mason), a washed-up celebrity. They fall in love, and Esther transforms into an in-demand starlet named Vicki Lester while Norman turns to alcoholism.

Streisand tweaked that plot ever-so-slightly, as she said, to focus her character Esther as an aspiring musician and Kristofferson's John Norman Howard as a declining rock star. The bones of that plot remained intact for Cooper and Gaga's Jackson and Ally, though with obvious modernized modifications.

While Streisand wasn't a fan, 2018's A Star Is Born received eight Oscar nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, including a victory in the best achievement in music written for motion pictures (original song) category for "Shallow."

Streisand also discussed Beyonce's "The Way We Were" cover tribute and her own newest album release titled Release Me 2. Watch the full package below.