Interview with Bradley Cooper
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Bradley Cooper
American actor, director and producer from Philadelphia. Known for The Hangover, Silver Linings Playbook, American Sniper, and directing A Star Is Born and Maestro.
Source: SAG-AFTRA Foundation on YouTube
These answers are taken from Bradley Cooper Career Retrospective | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations on SAG-AFTRA Foundation's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with acting?
I was working as a doorman at the Morgan Hotel, and I was able to get a headshot, so I was able to go on some auditions. I was lucky: I had a manager named Christie Thomas. I was able to go on many, which was already a huge gift, but I never booked anything. So [Sex and the City] was the first thing I booked.
It was like, what do you mean I have to actually do it? I remember thinking, isn't it just auditions? I really did think that's the career: you audition, and that's my life. And then, no, you got this one. So I was terrified. And then I had to drive a stick shift, so they sent me to driving school to learn how to drive it. I still didn't really do it well, so they wound up [using] somebody else, because they were worried that Sarah Jessica Parker was going to hit her head on the dashboard. I was a mess when we were shooting it. The minute they said don't worry, we got it, I was so happy.
What attracted you to begin a career as an actor?
I was desperately pursuing a dream that I had since I was 11, but I grew up in an environment where there were only two friends that we could talk about movies with before someone's like, enough with the movie talk. And then I found myself in New York City in grad school with like-minded people, and it was kind of heaven.
These incredible artists would come to that school, the Actors Studio MFA program at the New School. That was our thesis class, Inside the Actors Studio, and it was heaven. It was like a dream, to be able to just work, go back to someone's apartment and work on the scene for the next class. I still have friends to this day that I went to school with.
I didn't know anything about theater till I moved to New York. Nothing. It was movies and TV. Then I got to New York and the Labyrinth Theater was there, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was doing Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train. It was an incredible time in the late 90s to be in New York for theater, and that's when I really got an education.
What was a great moment for you as an actor?
I was so terrified to ask that question [of Robert De Niro at the Actors Studio]. I was shy. I still am shy, less shy, but that idea was really daunting, and even the question that I wanted to ask I thought was stupid. So the fact that he said good question was amazing. When they aired that episode they didn't air that question, and I asked if I could get a copy of it so that I could keep it. It was VHS back then, and I would play that, because we have to latch on to anything positive that happens to us amid all of this rejection. That was a major moment where I was like, oh, if you actually do what you feel deep down and risk being made fun of, something beautiful could happen.
Years later I put myself on tape for Everybody's Fine. He called his agent and said, can I meet with this guy? I went in, and he said, I saw your thing, you're not going to get it, but I see it. And then he stood up and he hugged me. He took a young actor that he thought did a good job and just wanted to let him know that he sees it. That was another thing I lived off of.
How did your acting career unfold?
I had been on Alias playing the nicest guy in the world, and the feedback was always, you know, Bradley, he's such a nice guy. So that was a huge moment, because I auditioned to play the heavy in a comedy, the most horrific human being, and I got that role [in Wedding Crashers]. That was a major thing for me personally: okay, you can change people's minds if you just keep at it.
Then Todd Phillips, who I had met six months earlier on The Hangover, sent this email: let's do this. We were only cast because the budget shrunk.
What The Hangover did in terms of the business was it allowed me to get a job on a movie where I was able to be the center of it, which was Limitless. That really was the movie that opened doors within the studio system, so that if Robert De Niro said maybe he's right for Silver Linings, they would even contemplate it. The only reason I got that movie was because he really was adamant to Harvey Weinstein and David O. Russell that I should play that role.
What advice do you have for new actors?
It wasn't so much something I told myself, because left to myself I would have imploded, no question. It was people. It was surrounding myself with people that loved me, that I loved, that would tell me the truth but believed in me. Even if it's one person or one moment, like De Niro saying that thing, or a great moment in a class. I guess it's the knowledge to hold on to that, because without that community I would never have survived.
It's like what Jay-Z said at the Grammys the other night. I loved it: keep showing up.
As I've gotten older, I'm like, no, risk. It's okay to fail. It's the only way. If I fall on my face, it's okay. But I want to keep growing and exploring.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as an actor?
We had gotten to the Venice Film Festival, which was amazing, and we were riding the boat to the theater, and it was pouring down rain. I remember thinking, no matter what happens. I loved the movie. I really felt like the movie I set out to make, we made, and I loved it. And I thought, no matter what happens, shame on me if I let anybody else dictate what I know we all went through and accomplished. I said that to myself, under my breath, as we were going into that theater.
The truth is, that's all that matters, because otherwise you're just left to so many other people dictating what you deem worthy of putting your time and effort into. I'm lucky that it was well received, but my hope is that even if it wasn't, I would have kept going. Because the truth is, it's all about the doing, and we all had an incredible time, and that's all that matters.
Think about a demanding director, professor or cast mate. What made him or her difficult? How did you successfully interact with this person?
[David O. Russell's] creative impulses are infectious. The thing that I really took away from those experiences was the willingness to pivot if there's a better idea. Just because you've predetermined something doesn't mean you have to live by that. Let's go explore that. I had never seen a filmmaker be that dexterous and that open, and because of that it's terrifying for an actor, potentially.
My cousin Colin came in one morning to read for the part of my brother. David says, okay, start the scene, and then, no, say it to him like you love him. And Colin's getting totally red, with these veins, and he kept saying, I'll do it on the day. And David's like, no, you've got to do it now. And that was the way it was every day. David would explore, and he would want you to do it now, not in your wardrobe yet, in the trailer: Jen, come in, Bob, let's figure this thing out.
It was great, because I just learned to be prepared the second I arrive on set at base camp. It was really like going to film school. He invited me into his process, and we edited the whole movie together.
Have you progressed in your acting career as you have expected?
When I left Alias, I had so many dear friends who said you're an idiot, because I asked to leave. It was a steady paycheck and I paid off my student loans, but I felt something deep inside that I wasn't going to make it as a human if I kept doing this. It wasn't fulfilling, and it was killing me. It was weird to feel that but not feel like you could voice it, because it sounds ridiculous. You should just be grateful.
Alias was also the dawn of message boards, and I remember reading, who is this guy they cast with bleached blond hair? It took my breath away. I went from working a lot to working two days a week. It made me doubt that I even had the ability. That, coupled with not getting roles that I felt I wanted to do, and I was definitely going to hang it up. I thought I'm just not built for this.
There was another moment, earlier, when Punch-Drunk Love was playing at the theater on Fairfax. I loved Paul Thomas Anderson, and I remember thinking, I can't leave this business. If movies like that are getting made, I have to stay in. As long as I love it more than the negativity, I'm going to stay in it.
Describe your acting style.
It's the same concept: just mean what you say. Try not to act. You can hear when your voice isn't connected, and there's nothing worse. In so many auditions where I'd have to do an emotional scene, I wasn't really dropped in, so I would be hoarse for a couple of hours later, because I wasn't really connected.
I knew I had to bank the character way before. Lenny had to be banked, meaning I felt like I was him months and months before we started shooting, so that I could focus on other things, and then on the day just take that leap of faith. Every morning I told myself, you've got to be Lenny before you leave this trailer. I never knew if it was going to happen, but every day it did.
Watching Vince Vaughn on Wedding Crashers, his willingness to fail was nuts. He was just so willing to not get it right but to explore. I had approached everything trying to muscle it and do it the right way, and I'm like, oh no, it's about exploring and being open and listening. As I've gotten older I'm much, much more bold. I find if I work hard enough, the fear does go away.
Tell me about a time where you had difficulty with a character. What was the role and why was it challenging?
I was terrified to just at least keep time for the London Symphony Orchestra. Because it's one shot and you see him and the orchestra, I needed to believe that I was conducting them, and I needed them to believe that I was conducting them, because we were doing it live. It wasn't a prerecorded thing that they were playing to. I was terrified of being open enough to allow that joy to come through in his conducting. That was the thing I worked so hard on, so I could just be loose enough for his joy to come through and for us to capture it on film.
The first day I messed it up so many times. You have these 180 insane musicians, and I asked for one more take with a different setup, and I said a prayer in front of everybody to Lenny. And then that was the take. Just be joyful, just stop thinking and just go. You've done the work. If I fail, okay, I did the absolute best I could. I gave myself the freedom to fail, and because of that, all I was filled with was joy.
What was the biggest audience you have performed in front of?
I did not want to do that. That was not a dream of mine. I wasn't like, I'd love to sing live in front of a televised audience. That sounds like a nightmare. But it was the song nominated, you sing the song. And also, because we sang it live, if I didn't do that well, the whole movie would be tainted. You would think, oh, they changed his voice, or that wasn't him. There was no choice. It was one of those moments where you just have to do it.
I worked really hard. I did a vocal warm-up during the Oscars. I went to a room. I meditate anyway, and I just tried to Zen out the whole show. And the truth is, I pitched that we come out of the audience, because I knew I would be too terrified otherwise. I'm already here, I feel the room, and then I just get up and start singing, and for the first four seconds my back's to the audience. The idea of waiting on the side and then coming out I thought was too terrifying. And it worked out, because it wound up being much more like the movie.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your resume.
I worked the graveyard shift [as a doorman at the Morgan Hotel], and I took Leo and his six friends to their room. I remember riding the elevator, a mirrored elevator, and seeing his reflection, and thinking, wow, he looks so young. I knew we were the same age. His baseball cap was down, but I knew it was him, and I remember thinking, how am I ever going to enter into that world? I took Fran Drescher to her room.
I don't think I look at it the same way anymore. Back then things were mythologized. It was all in some sort of different universe. Now I look at it as just the opportunity to work with people I care about and create something, in the same way that I created with my friends in grad school. It's the same exact thing, just on a bigger level. As you get older, one of the blessings is everything becomes much more real, and you realize everybody's just a person.
Bradley Cooper's Full Biography
Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria (Campano), is of Italian descent, and worked for a local NBC station. His father, Charles John Cooper, who was of Irish descent, was a stockbroker. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the Honors English program at Georgetown University in 1997, he moved to New York City to enroll in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University. There, he developed his stage work, culminating with his thesis performance as John Merrick in Bernard Pomerance's "The Elephant Man", performed in New York's Circle in the Square.
While still in school, Bradley began his professional career, appearing opposite Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City (1998) and on the drama series The Beat (2000). His weekends were spent with LEAP (Learning through the Expanded Arts Program), a non-profit organization that teaches acting and movement to inner city school children. The summers took him all across the globe, from kayaking in British Columbia with Orca Whales to ice-climbing in the Peruvian Andes, while hosting Lonely Planet's Treks in a Wild World (2000) for the Discovery Channel. Bradley had to miss his graduation ceremony from the Actors Studio in order to star in his first feature Wet Hot American Summer (2001). After finishing his second feature Bending All the Rules (2002), his plans to relocate to Los Angeles were delayed when Darren Star hired him to star on the drama series The $treet (2000).
Bradley went on to win the role of young law student Gordon Pinella in Changing Lanes (2002), starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, and also played Travis Paterson in My Little Eye (2002). He finally decided that it was time to forgo his other New York projects and move to Los Angeles when he was cast on Alias (2001). After supporting roles in Wedding Crashers (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), The Comebacks (2007), The Rocker (2008) and Yes Man (2008), Cooper broke out with major roles in He's Just Not That Into You (2009), The Hangover (2009) and Valentine's Day (2010). He co-starred in the action film The A-Team (2010) and headlined the thriller film Limitless (2011).
Cooper received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor after starring opposite Jennifer Lawrence in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook (2012). He then received two more consecutive Oscar nominations, Best Supporting Actor for playing Richie DiMaso in Russell's American Hustle (2013) (again opposite Lawrence, though their characters shared no significant screen time), and Best Actor for playing Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper (2014), the highest grossing film of 2014. During this time period, Cooper also reprised his role in The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013), turned in another strong dramatic turn in The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and voiced Rocket Raccoon in the third highest grossing film of 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
In 2015, Bradley headlined two comedies, Cameron Crowe's Aloha (2015), set in Hawaii, and John Wells' Burnt (2015), set in London, and starred opposite Jennifer Lawrence again in David O. Russell's Joy (2015).
Bradley has a daughter (born 2017) with his former partner, model Irina Shayk.