Bradley Cooper is currently writing something that has been “burning” in him since his 2023 masterpiece biopic "Maestro".
The "American Sniper" and "A Star Is Born" actor took part in a BAFTA Life In Pictures event in London during which he was asked what’s coming next for him.
The multi-hyphenate told the audience: “There is something that’s been burning in me since Maestro and I’m writing it now and we’ll see. Talk about terrified, so terrified, way more terrifying.”
During the talk, Cooper talked multiple times about fear as a motivating factor for his work. He added: “I get terrified in the beginning of a project, like terrified. That’s the scariest thing. But the more work I put in, the less scared I get and the more the excitement starts to overtake the fear. By the time I’m showing up on set, I’m so excited that that really is the propulsive engine rather than fear. But on stage, I was definitely scared. Right before, but I get scared of weird things. Like what if I pass gas on stage or what if I get the hiccups? What happens if I get the hiccups in the middle of The Elephant Man?”
The event’s host Edith Bowman asked whether the new project is a musical. “It’s not a musical,” Cooper confirmed. She pressed whether it would feature dancing. “I don’t know, you never know, I do love to dance,” he joked.
In the wide-ranging chat, 12-time Oscar nominee Cooper, who was a co-writer on "Maestro" and "A Star Is Born", talked about key movies in his career.
He recounted in detail his respect and fondness for Clint Eastwood and how the two came to work on American Sniper.
Cooper said: “Stephen Spielberg was going to direct the movie at that time…and then it was Greg Silverman at Warner Brothers who said, “I think Clint is reading the book”, offhandedly, “why don’t you call him.” I was like, ‘call him?’ He was like “yeah, he’ll talk to you.” I was like, ‘okay’. And then I talked to Clint. He said “let me finish it, I will call you on Monday.” I was in Denmark editing Serena, then Clint called at 2 pm and he said, “let’s make this fucker.”
He added: “That’s what he said. I was like, ‘Yes, sir!’ Then we flew to Texas [where Chris Kyle’s widow lived], just me and him and I expected him to have, I don’t even know what I expected, but it was just him and an old school bowling bag with his clothes and we checked into a motel and I remember the room, he called the room, the phone rang, he said “do you want to get some yoghurt? Meet you in the lobby” and we go down to the lobby and eat yoghurt and people’s jaws are dropping, that Clint Eastwood is in the middle of a Texas motel and we’re eating fake strawberry yoghurt.”
Cooper detailed how he put on 60 pounds to get into the character of sniper Chris Kyle but his methodical approach was gently mocked by Eastwood. “I did all this work, I was 238lbs, put an inch-and-a-half on my neck. And I learned this from Christian Bale on American Hustle, it did help to stay in the voice, it just made it feel like I wasn’t acting so I’d kind of be like Chris Kyle all the time and Clint would always make fun of me. We would be eating dinner after work and saying, ‘Bradley is going to have the steak’, so it was amazing, Clint Eastwood making fun of your process. On the first day, I was so proud, hey, look, I gained the weight and I sound like him. And I remember he just said “So this is how you’re going to do it, huh. All right.” And that was it, we never talked about it until he started making fun of me. He was the best, man. What I learnt from him was, he grew up as a Depression-era kid, was a piano player in saloons to make money and was an extra for many, many years.”
Cooper also recounted how Beyoncé nd Adele had initially been in mind for the Lady Gaga role in "A Star Is Born".
“It was a $38 million budget which is not little but little for that movie and Beyonce was doing it at the time and I wrote it for her and we went down that road but then that didn’t work out and then I went to Adele, I was like a fish out of water and it takes place in England and his career is on the fritz and then that didn’t work out and I then I put it to bed and I happened to be at this cancer benefit and Lady Gaga was singing “La Vie en Rose” and I just could not, I called her agent the next day and said can I go to her house and be with her and that’s how the whole thing started.”
Cooper most recently wrote, directed, produced and starred in the dramedy "Is This Thing On?" which Searchlight Pictures is releasing this awards season.
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