GaGa Was A Fearless As Jo Calderone

Dave Sirulnick (VMA executive producer) spoke to MTV about Jo's appearance at this years awards. He spoke about how GaGa had planned to appear as Jo several weeks ago, and how she turned up as Jo for several days before the actual award show.

We had talked to her about the creative [for the performance] a few weeks before the show. We had a call with her, and it became clear that she’s going to be Jo. She showed up as Jo, rehearsed as Jo … if you said ‘Gaga,’ she wouldn’t respond. After rehearsals, she comes over, she says to me, ‘It’s nice to meet you,’ and I say to her, ‘I know your friend Gaga,’ and she says, ‘That Gaga, what a bitch!’ She did not break character once. She walks in backstage and, in front of a whole bunch of people, went into the men’s room. Later, we had all the Young the Giant fans lined up waiting for the band to rehearse their performance, and Jo was walking out of the building to her dressing room and someone yelled ‘It’s Gaga!’ But she didn’t respond, just kept on walking, until finally someone yelled, ‘Hey, Jo!’ and then she turned and waved.

He then continued on, talking about the impact that Jo Calderone would make on the future of the VMA.

Over the years, lots of people have done lots of things, lots of people have worn lots of things, but no one has been that committed, that in character. She’s smoking in the building, she was holding court in the crowd, you know, Kanye, Katy, Adele, Tony Bennett, they loved it. They respected her commitment and her level of artistry. For her to go out there and just be so into this character, it was fearless, and you saw a lot of that at the VMAs.