Lady Gaga is the voice of the emotional ballad “Til It Happens to You” for campus rape documentary “The Hunting Ground,” and now the singer-turned-actress is opening up about being raped at the age of 19.
“I didn’t tell anyone for I think seven years,” Gaga said during a TimesTalks panel discussion on Thursday, the same day she got a Golden Globe nomination for “American Horror Story: Hotel.”
“I didn’t know how to think about it. I didn’t know how to accept it. I didn’t know how to not blame myself or think it was my fault,” she said. “It’s something that really changed my life. It changed who I was completely. It changed my body, it changed my thoughts.”
Gaga first opened up about the horrific rape on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show in Dec. 2014, but expanded on the experience during the panel by revealing how it changed both her body and her mind.
“When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn’t just have the immediate physical ramifications,” she explained. “For many people it has almost like trauma, where you re-experience it through the years after it. It can trigger patterns in your body of physical distress. So a lot of people suffer not just emotional and mental pain, but physical pain as a result of being abused, raped or traumatized in some way.”
Gaga earlier told Stern that a man “20 years older” took advantage of her, but she has since gone to great lengths to make sure it didn’t define her.
“I don’t want to be defined by it,” she said. “I’ll be damned if somebody’s gonna say that every creatively intelligent thing that I ever did is all boiled down to one d–khead that did that to me. I’m gonna take responsibility for all my pain looking beautiful and all the things I’ve made out of my strife. I did that.”
“The Hunting Ground” is a documentary about alleged incidents of rape on college campuses. It was written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, premiering at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Lady Gaga recorded the song for the film.
Watch the panel discussion below.
Golden Globes Snubs and Surprises: From Johnny Depp to Lady Gaga (Photos)
SURPRISE: "Casual"
This freshman comedy from director Jason Reitman marks the first time a Hulu series has been nominated for a Golden Globe.
Hulu
SNUB: "Creed"
Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler both failed to get a nomination, while the film did not get a nomination for Best Drama despite being a critical and box office success. But Sylvester Stallone did get nominated for Best Supporting Actor-Drama
MGM/Warner Bros.
SURPRISE: "Mozart in the Jungle"
The new Amazon dramady set in a fictional New York symphony orchestra secured two nominations (Best TV Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy Series) despite the fact that the show has not generated as much buzz as Amazon's other major series, "Transparent."
Amazon
SNUB: "Mad Men"
While Jon Hamm got nominated, the final season of AMC's "Mad Men" failed to secure any other nominations for the Golden Globes
AMC
SNUB: "Straight Outta Compton"
Universal's NWA biopic failed to get any nominations, despite a strong cast of young actors and major critical and box office success
Despite major praise for his role as gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, Johnny Depp failed to get a Best Actor-Drama nomination.
Warner Bros.
SURPRISE: Fox
After getting shut out at the SAG Award nominations, Fox secured four nominations, including Best TV Drama ("Empire") and Best Actress in a TV Drama (Taraji P. Henson)
"House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey did not get nominated for his performance as Frank Underwood this year, despite winning the Best Actor in a TV Drama last year
While Amy Schumer's feature debut, "Trainwreck," got a nomination, the comedian failed to get one for her Comedy Central sketch series, "Inside Amy Schumer."
Mark Ruffalo got a nod for "Infinitely Polar Bear." The surprise is that he did not get nominated for his performance in the critically-acclaimed "Spotlight"
ABC
SURPRISE: New faces in comedy actor category
Jeffrey Tambor from Amazon's "Transparent" is the only returning nominee in the Best Actor in a TV Comedy category. New nominees include: Aziz Ansari ("Master of None"); Rob Lowe ("The Grinder"); Gael Garcia Bernal ("Mozart in the Jungle"); and Patrick Stewart ("Blunt Talk")
Amazon
SNUB: "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"
Ellie Kemper earned widespread praise for her role in the Tina Fey Netflix series "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Yet both she and the show failed to receive any Golden Globe nominations
Lady Gaga secured the only acting nomination for Ryan Murphy's FX anthology series, "American Horror Story: Hotel." Her appearance on the show as The Countess marks her first major acting role in a television series
FX
SURPRISE: Rachel Bloom
Rachel Bloom, star of CW's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," got a nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy series, despite the show's low ratings
Julianna Margulies failed to get a nomination for her role in CBS' "The Good Wife," despite being nominated in the Best Actress in a TV Drama category for the past five years
CBS
SNUB: NBC
Mirroring Fox at the 2016 SAG Award nominations, no NBC series managed to get a nomination for the Golden Globes, including the final season of "Parks and Recreation"
Veteran actor Benicio and Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro did not get a nomination for his portrayal of drug enforcement agent Alejandro in critically acclaimed thriller "Sicario"
Lionsgate
SNUB: "The Walk"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's biopic of high-wire artist Philippe Petit and his walk between the World Trade Center tower failed to secure any nominations despite being pegged as an early Best Picture contender
Sony
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Several critical darlings get shut out, while a number of relatively unknown projects score big
SURPRISE: "Casual"
This freshman comedy from director Jason Reitman marks the first time a Hulu series has been nominated for a Golden Globe.