Bradley Cooper
Star almost gave up acting
Bradley Cooper owes a lot to Paul Thomas Anderson.
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Bradley Cooper was already doubting his acting career and almost gave it up.
Bradley Cooper (47) almost gave up his career. During the early days of the corona pandemic, he had doubts about acting and wanted to focus on the work behind the scenes. During the virtual meetup for “Variety’s Actors on Actors” Bradley Cooper and his fellow actor Mahershala Ali (47) talked about their careers.
After the shooting of Cooper’s film “Nightmare Alley” had to be paused due to the corona pandemic, he would have grown a beard and taken on the role of Jon Peters in “Licorice Pizza”. But its screenwriter and director Paul Thomas Anderson (51) not only gave Cooper a role, but much more. “The reason I didn’t give up acting is because of Paul Thomas Anderson,” the Hollywood star said. After calling Cooper to offer him the role in his film, the actor spent three and a half weeks with Anderson. “I watched all the camera tests. He taught me all about lenses, things I never knew. He’s amazing,” Cooper gushed.
Own ego in the way?
While filming ‘Licorice Pizza’ made the actor feel good, Guillermo del Toro’s (57) ‘Nightmare Alley’ proved, according to the star, to be an ‘interesting example’ of how ‘insecure’ Cooper is. “Leonardo DiCaprio dropped out and Guillermo del Toro came to me. I remember thinking, ‘Oh wow, these guys who aren’t hiring me want to hire me?'” Cooper said. These thoughts were a mixture of insecurity and ego. “Thankfully, it turned out to be an incredible experience,” he continued.