"The truth is, I made this film with Bradley because I believe in him as a filmmaker, an actor, as a screenwriter, as a musician. He has it all in spades."
Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an acclaimed and Academy Award nominated American actor, musician, director and film producer who first gained recognition in the television shows Alias and Jack & Bobby.
He later appeared in supporting roles in the films Wedding Crashers, Yes-Man, and He's Just Not That into You, but achieved worldwide fame with his leading roles in The Hangover trilogy, The A-Team, Limitless, Silver Linings Playbook, The Place Beyond the Pines, American Hustle, the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, American Sniper, and A Star is Born, the latter of which he also produced and directed.
Selected filmography:
Television
- Sex and the City (1999) as Jake note
- The Street (2000 — 2001) as Clay Hammond
- Alias (2001 — 2006) as Will Tippin
- My Little Eye (2002) as Travis Patterson
- Jack & Bobby (2004 — 2005) as Tom Wexler Graham
- Nip/Tuck (2007 — 2009) as Aidan Stone
- Law & Order (2005) as Jason Whitaker
- Law & Order: SVU (2005)
- Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005)
- Kitchen Confidential (2005 — 2006) as Jack Bourdain
- Saturday Night Live (2009, 2013, 2015) as himself / various characters
- WWE Raw (2010) as himself
- Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015)
- Limitless (2015 — 2016) as Eddie Morra
Film
- Wet Hot American Summer (2001) as Ben
- My Little Eye (2002) as Travis Patterson
- Wedding Crashers (2005) as Zachary "Sack" Lodge
- Failure to Launch (2006) as Demo
- The Midnight Meat Train (2008) as Leon Kaufman
- The Rocker (2008) as Trash
- Yes-Man (2008) as Peter
- He's Just Not That into You (2009) as Ben
- The Hangover (2009) as Phil
- The Hangover Part II (2011)
- The Hangover Part III (2013)
- All About Steve (2009) as Steve
- Valentine's Day (2010) as Holden
- The A-Team (2010) as Templeton Peck
- Limitless (2011) as Eddie Morra
- The Words (2012) as Rory Jansen
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012) as Patrick "Pat" Solitano, Jr.
- The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) as Avery Cross
- American Hustle (2013) as Richie DiMaso
- Serena (2014) as George Pemberton
- Marvel Cinematic Universe as Rocket Raccoon (voice):
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!note (2017)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
- I Am Groot (2022)
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
- American Sniper (2014) as Chris Kyle
- Aloha (2015) as Brian Gilcrest
- Burnt (2015) as Adam Jones
- Joy (2015) as Neil Walker
- 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) as Ben (voice)
- War Dogs (2016) as Henry Girard
- A Star is Born (2018) as Jackson Maine — also directed
- The Mule (2018) as Colin Bates
- Licorice Pizza (2021) as Jon Peters
- Nightmare Alley (2021) as Stanton 'Stan' Carlisle
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) as Marlamin
As producer
- Joker (2019)
He provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Peter Griffin on one episode said his last name as “Hooper”, a reverse of what Big Bird did to Mr. Hooper. Lois points it out to Peter.
- Actor-Inspired Element: He came up with the idea for Richie to have a perm in American Hustle, and also for him to be seen with curlers in the scene in his apartment.
- The Alcoholic: His characters in Burnt and A Star is Born. In fact, he even suffered from substance abuse until becoming a teetotaler in 2004.
- Author Appeal: He wanted to be a chef when he was younger, and jumped at the chance to play ones in Kitchen Confidential and Burnt.
- Celebrity Resemblance: He looks a lot like Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- He also went up to 215 lbs for Wedding Crashers to be believably intimidating against Vince Vaughn.
- Got frosted blond tips for He's Just Not That into You.
- Gained 37 lbs for American Sniper, by going on a diet and consuming 6000 calories a day.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Bradley Cooper is surprisingly fluent in French and frequently makes interviews in this language.
- Failed a Spot Check: Per his interview on Ellen, he has come to fully identify with the image of Rocket Raccoon. He told of a time he once got super excited about seeing himself on a billboard, only to later realize that it was Rocket.
- Large Ham: In Nip/Tuck.
- Lovable Rogue: The role he most frequently plays.
- Perma-Stubble: Frequently dons these.
- Playing Against Type:
- Early on in his career, he played the scarily abusive Jerkass boyfriend in Wedding Crashers. This character is also more shallow and two dimensional than his other roles.
- Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy is a surprising role for a guy who usually stars in realistic fiction, but is an aversion. Rocket plays a lot into Bradley's type when it comes to his most famous roles, being a guy who seems to have it together, but has a ton of emotional and mental baggage like Pat Solitano, Chris Kyle, and his later role Jackson Maine. Except as a raccoon in space.
- Playing with Character Type: In American Hustle he starts off within his usual type, but the devious Jerkass qualities eventually come to the forefront - to the point where he beats up his superior with a phone.
- Production Posse: Him, David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence are a very effective team.
- Promoted Fanboy: He has made four films with his idol Robert De Niro.
- Self-Deprecation:
- On one episode of The Graham Norton Show he happily makes fun of being voted the Sexiest Man Alive, saying he compared pictures of himself and Ryan Gosling."He looks like he just came from a photo shoot...while I look like that neighbor that never comes out of his house."
- Also makes fun of an audition tape he sent in for a show about MMA fighters - claiming he wore biker shorts and filmed himself kicking trash cans in his backyard.
- He had about as much fun as everyone else did in noting how jarring the infamous fake baby in American Sniper looked. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she showed him a clip of Sienna Miller making fun of his attempts to hold the prop, and Cooper ended up laughing loudly when Miller pointed out that he wiggled the baby's arm with his thumb to get it to move.
- On one episode of The Graham Norton Show he happily makes fun of being voted the Sexiest Man Alive, saying he compared pictures of himself and Ryan Gosling.
- Star-Making Role: The Hangover gave him name recognition in the eyes of the public, and his Oscar-nominated performance in Silver Linings Playbook solidified his status as a leading man.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Stands 6'1", has brown hair and was named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine in 2011.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Many of his roles tend to be these.
- The Teetotaler: Cooper hasn't had a drink of alcohol since he was 29. Pretty ironic indeed.
- Those Two Actors: With Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Serena and Joy.
- He's also appeared in multiple films with Robert De Niro, including three of the ones he appeared in with Lawrence.
- Typecasting: After his roles in Alias he found himself typecast as a Nice Guy Pretty Boy, joking that he only got into Wedding Crashers because the director had never seen Alias. His typecast has shifted since, usually playing guys who are just barely holding themselves together with a ton of emotional and mental baggage under the surface (Pat Solitano, Chris Kyle, Rocket Raccoon, Jackson Maine).
- What Beautiful Eyes!: His blue eyes are quite striking.
- What Could Have Been: He auditioned for the title role in Green Lantern (2011) and was Martin Campbell's choice but the studio wanted Ryan Reynolds. He also put his name forward for Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before Ben Affleck was cast. Given his two close calls, many are hoping to see him finally get a shot at playing GL in a future film.
