If you wanted a theme song for your big-budget film, you’d probably be pretty excited if someone who’d already won an Oscar for Best Original Song was interested in writing it. Top Gun: Maverick director Joe Kosinski tells ABC Audio that’s how he felt when Lady Gaga offered them “Hold My Hand.”
Kosinski says they were taking submissions for songs for the long-awaited sequel when Gaga threw her hat into the ring, which, he says, caused him anxiety.
“When I heard it … y’know, it’s a little nerve-wracking,” says Kosinski. “Because you’re like, ‘Well, what if I don’t like it?’ You know, how do you say no thank you to Lady Gaga? I mean, it’s incredible that she even took the time to put this out [there]! But as soon as I heard it, I just … that melody is classic. It just felt like it fit.”
Kosinski says he’s pretty sure Gaga didn’t see the film before writing the song, and that she only went by what she was told about the story and by “a very kind of broad, kind of thematic conversation about what we were going for.”
He notes, “When we put it in the film, she was obviously thrilled with how it worked.” Thrilled enough, in fact, to have Kosinski direct the video for “Hold My Hand.”
“I … got to work with her for a day, and … I was just blown away by her commitment and her talent,” Kosinski raves. “She’s a creative force. She’s a superstar for a reason. And I’m so thrilled and lucky that she wrote this song for us because it was a piece [of the puzzle] that we needed for the movie.”
The Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, featuring “Hold My Hand,” is out now.
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