You remember A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut as he starred alongside Lady Gaga that turned out to be a critical and financial success? Well it could have been a drastically different movie if Cooper had been able to secure his first choice for the lead role. Variety reports that Cooper revealed his original choice as musician Jack White. If you’re not familiar with White’s name you’ve most definitely heard his music. He was the lead singer in The White Stripes who created the ever popular song, Seven Nation Army.

The musician had previously made a small but memorable performance as Elvis Presley in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and also appeared in Cold Mountain as Renee Zellweger’s love interest. Cooper stated the studio had reservations about working with White so he was forced to move on to someone new. He also stated that “Anytime a big pop star broke, we would talk about it.” There were discussions of Lauryn Hill, Aaliyah and even Whitney Houston starring in the main role of Ally. Consequence of Sound even revealed that Clint Eastwood was slated to direct with Cooper and Beyonce in the starring roles. But as you can probably figure out, all those possibilities slowly narrowed down with Cooper finally emerging as the chosen director.

Although things may have worked out for the best, it is still extremely fascinating to wonder about the movies that could’ve been.