In a new interview with Oprah Winfrey published Wednesday in Elle magazine, Gaga said she and Cooper "worked for days" on the intimate Oscars performance that sent the rumor mill into overdrive, explaining that it was "orchestrated as a performance."
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"For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars," Gaga told Winfrey. "We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on."
Winfrey then remarked that the performance landed just as Gaga and Cooper had intended, and Gaga joked: "In truth, when we talked about it, we went, 'Well, I guess we did a good job!'"
The Elle interview isn't the first time Gaga has tried to set the record straight. She made similar comments during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" shortly after the Oscars performance.
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"People saw love. And guess what? That's what we wanted you to see. This is a love song, 'Shallow.' The movie, 'A Star Is Born,' it's a love story," she told Kimmel. "We worked so hard. We worked all week on that performance."
Gaga insisted she and Cooper performed the song in their characters - with Gaga as Ally and Cooper as Jack - because they're both "artists" who wanted to give the best performance possible.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.