If you were watching the Oscars Sunday night and witnessed Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sing "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born" up on the stage, it was hard not to come away with one thought: They are totally in love!
But it turns out they are just totally even better actors than we realized, according to Gaga.
During her visit to "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Wednesday night, she says they wanted to give an impression of connectedness while singing the now-Oscar-winning song.
"Yes, people saw love, and guess what?" she said. "That's what we wanted you to see."
See, when Gaga croons a tune, she puts her all into it for those few minutes — and it's easy to think she and her partner are about to make some kind of formal announcement about a relationship.
"This is a love song, 'Shallow'; the movie 'A Star Is Born,' it's a love story," she continued, explaining that every moment on that stage was directed by Cooper, who had directed the movie. "It was so important to both of us that we were connected the entire time ... When you're singing love songs, that's what you want people to feel."
It worked, and has been working since the film came out. Fans have long been discussing the chemistry between the two. But Gaga is only recently out of an engagement to Christian Carino, while Cooper is dating model Irina Shayk.
Still, on stage Sunday when they shared a piano bench and sang much of the song cheek-to-cheek while gazing into each others' eyes, it was hard not to wonder. Then Cooper wrapped his arm around her waist!
Since then, others have had something to say about the spark they were sure they saw on stage between them, including Cooper's ex-wife Jennifer Esposito, David Spade and Mel B.
But as Gaga told Kimmel, she felt a similar connection when duetting with Tony Bennett over the past few years — and there was no romance there, either.
"I'm an artist and I guess (Bradley and I) did a good job," she laughed. "Fooled ya!"