Conversations with Bradley Cooper

well thanks [Music] let's get it all out everybody get it out we got ya thank you thank you I forgot it was my birthday yeah you did for a second thank you guys all for coming out I'm Krista Smith with Vanity Fair and obviously this is Bradley Cooper and it's his birthday and and it's just such an honor and a privilege to be here and to get to spend the next hour with you and talk about your career conversation and it's especially poignant for me because I'm in journalism obviously and I am based in the West Coast so I cover entertainment for Vanity Fair and I have watched Bradley from pretty much I think I remember him in his one scene in Sex in the City and kind of tracking tracking his career through nepeta and midnight me train and you know all the way through so you just got to see some of the stuff that he does but one of the things that comes to mind always with you is range and versatility no one can ever pin you down and I've said this to you before but for me what really made you a leading man was when you put on the garbage bag and silver linings playbook and I was like oh now I get it easily too man but I want to talk about Elephant Man because this is a particularly it's a clip you guys just saw and I got to see that on Broadway and it was spectacular and this is something that I think for since this is a room full of actors this is really the the Nugget for you when you were kid and I've read this before about you that sitting in your house in Philly you watched Elephant Man and that was the moment where you were like I want to do that I want to be an actor yeah you know before before we talked about that I just have to say I was listening to everything back in the side of the stage and the fact that you all are here and are interested in talking about that work means a lot to me so thank you that really means a lot and the fact that it's my birthday is is really kind of wonderful when I was thinking I thought well I've ever thought a day would come where I would be able to sit in a room with fellow actors and talk about the work well that's kind of wonderful so thank you for being here I feel like we're just midway through the journey here yes the Elephant Man prism came in to Philadelphia that was a you know was a service you know hpom prism and they played movies for yourself a man was on you know for like I felt like a year twice a day and and I watched it many times and I sort of got addicted to how emotionally how emotional it made me from the Dadaji for Strings and John Hurt's performance at David Lynch's direction and it really was the little one the first scene that gets me is when Anthony Hopkins comes in and you don't see Merrick and you just see that tear come down Treves face as he says he takes in what the site is and we as the audience are with Anthony Hopkins and I think it was he was what Hopkins was doing but it was really what Lynch was doing how I was very aware of how he was manipulating me through the way he was telling the story cinematically so the truth the real truth is and that was what crystallized for me that I wanted to be in that world I wanted to be a part of that world and I think the idea of directing was something I couldn't even fathom consciously so I materially was the love of storytelling and and then and then the ID and then Merrick moved me so much I just started researching about him all the time and I kind of became obsessed with Joseph Merrick was his real name and and yeah that was the moment you know but a movie theater was across the street from my backyard there was train tracks than a movie theater so I was very lucky so I would always go to the movies so there's really many movies and my father was a huge cinephile so really films just became such a compartment for me to learn about life you know as sad as that is but it really was you know I was even thinking about that the other night about how I felt like included in inhumanity because I would see things that I've felt in my life up on screen and movies and that's what made me feel like I belonged really we're movies almost as much as life and I think that's why it to me it feels like such a privilege to be in this profession to do that to tell human stories so that people could feel the way that I felt cuz it's given me a tremendous amount of nourishment and I've learned a lot from watching movies my whole you know most of my life you talk about your dad being a cinephile and sharing that experience with you but he wasn't in the business right he was a stockbroker I think or so for you as a young man young like teenager was it hard for you to say out loud I want to be an actor this is what I want to do was there any other oddly enough no and I was made fun of all the time by my uncles because when I saw the Elephant Man that's when I declared it publicly to the mirror and then to my family that that I wanted to be an actor and I remember even in high school as I was applying to college to a college that had no theatre program and nothing and yeah but I did I knew I wasn't ready but i but i but i it was never there was no doubt that I wanted to be an actor and I was at an event the other night in Regina King was speaking she was talking about how she wanted to be so many different things and she realized what she really wanted to be was an actor and I think that was really true and I'm sure for true for a lot of you you know you just wanted to be everything and it changed by the week sometimes by the hour but in that hour that was it you were gonna be you know whatever that was gonna be so so acting was the only way to somehow facilitate that odd urge and you would any it feels like you went to Georgetown obviously as you said Lynbrook sorry but yes I came from a background no one no one knew anything about movies in terms of having a relationship to an actor or anything my parents are both from Philadelphia and my grandfather was a cop a beat cop for 35 years that was my mother's father and the Italian side of my father's father was a fireman and they actually knew each other because they had the same insurance medical insurance so they would be at the podiatrist together because boots back then you have a lot of foot problems some a little too much detail but anyway but but the odd thing is Robert De Niro nobody but I felt like I knew Robert De Niro my uncle would talk about Robert De Niro like he was our cousin or something maybe that was it you felt so you're like ah he sucked in that moment but this one he's great and that all when he did that you know you mean you're like it was crazy and Al Pacino these were all people that we felt like we knew who they were that they were a part of our literally our family it was just so odd but I think that's that's that you know what I'm talking about that and it doesn't feel like you knew them so even though I was so removed so removed and theater was like Mars to me I remember I went to the forest theater there was the only I saw like cats when I was like 15 was the only like live thing I'd ever seen until I got to grad school basically so Theater was something I had that I had no connection to and then once I plunged into it fell madly in love with it anyway so yeah well and then he went to the Ashdod Joe why you were at Georgetown right where you were an English major and he did very well so obviously you're very studious when you made that journey I didn't get in out of high school I applied I got rejected and then I reapplied I transferred I transferred there from Villanova actually oh really yeah yeah but but I think that was one of the best things that ever happened to me because I was prediction yeah the rejection I was pretty devastated and and I was I just I was just so myopic and wanting to go there and I just tried again and then got in I think once I got there I felt like I didn't really deserve to be there so that made me work really hard so I would never have done as well as I did academically I think if I had gotten in out of high school so wound up being a blessing that's kind of gonna be euphemism for your career as we go along in this conversation I'm feeling but when you got to New York why did you choose the actor studio again yeah I did have I did I knew nothing about acting schools or anything only thing I heard is there's this Yale Drama School which says it's you know that's all I mean even though that meant so I remember I remember who I was meeting with you're I was this guy father Knopf at Georgetown talking about what are you gonna do after undergraduate and I was like you know I think I'll go to Yale Drama School like no idea that like they let 15 people in and there's no chance in hell I'd ever get in I think I'll do that or and then and then and then as and then I was like my sophomore year and then by senior year I wasn't actually a program that I had to write a thesis so I couldn't apply to those schools which of course I wouldn't have gotten into and the Actors Studio had just started this MFA program I think two years prior and the truth is they were doing that to fund the Actors Studio James Lipton started it because Paul Newman stopped giving money to the Actors Studio and they were going broke and the news it was okay so it was this great idea let's create this MFA program that will bring revenue to keep the studio alive and so I I just benefited from a school that they were letting a lot of people and they were letting like 80 people and but I was taught by Susan Batson Ellen Burstyn Arthur Penn I mean it was ridiculous that the people that I was taught by at that school and they had rolling admissions so I was able to do my thesis and then apply late and so that's how so and a friend of mine was going there to another part of the new school and she said you know there's rolling admissions so I thought oh okay at least I'll get my feet wet with an application I may even if I don't get it I'll take a year off I thought I'd work as an intern at the Shubert theater in Philly and then applied or Yale Drama School still not knowing that I wouldn't get in and so so and I remember at the audition was any of there's an audition and I actually asked a Carmelite priest who was a professor Georgetown to do the audition with me who wasn't an actor and and and we did a scene from mass appeal and I and we took the train from DC into New York and then we were rehearsing at Washington Square Park and I remember a cop came up because what's his scene where he hits me like no no we're just acting and then we did the audition that they thought Andrew was auditioning I remember they said are you Bradley Cooper and he was like no no this guy his and and then I got in and then them and then you know that was that yeah thank God for that how different were you as a person when you got into when you came out oh that's interesting the same amount of enthusiasm just a tremendous amount of knowledge I knew nothing when I got I did a play at Georgetown where I cried like a baby in one scene and I was so happy and thrilled with myself thinking that like this is it I was right at 12 only to be told with the note session the next day from the director how horrible that scene was and how I stopped saying the lines and that the audience was very uncomfortable because it looked like I was in pain and I realize I knew nothing I had no idea how to how to do anything other than the love of the want to learn how to do it and I had an incredible teacher there Elizabeth Kemp in the first year they said they really I love that program and I just went back and talked to the students there and they're wonderful it's now at Pace University but you know was split up into three years and basic tech was the first year and was all about opening up your instrument the second year was about analyzing a script and the third year was putting those two together and then you have a thesis which was the Elephant Man for me it was a 30 minute version of it that we would then do a week run at at the downtown circle in the square that was then on Bleecker Street and so it was really just I had the toolbox after I left there when I graduate in 2000 and that was just you know I mean that's what I used till this day but I kept the same love you know that that's it that did not weigh in fact it increased I finally met people actually who I I could talk to movies about I only had my buddy Brian Klugman that I've known since I'm 10 years old I just spent my birthday with him I hope the Cowboys lost anyway I'd left the game big game tomorrow Eagles tomorrow yeah let's get the Bears anyway sorry so so all I had was Brian Klugman to watch Apocalypse Now a deer hunter in all those movies and loneliness of the long distance runner as a kid and my father so then all of a sudden I'm I'm I'm plotted down in New York City with Gabe Fazio and Luca Perugia and all these guys in my grad school who I love and were you know out all night and bars talking about movies and plays so it was really a wonderful wonderful moment of feeling like I was with people that I've been searching for my whole adolescence well so since you brought up all I'm gonna ask you this so when you were on Broadway which gave you more satisfaction as a person bringing Elephant Man to Broadway or Eagles wanting a Super Bowl you can't ask me that question that is just not fair because I don't like that I don't know the answer to that well I want to talk a little bit about the craft since we are in a room full of actors and holding that line through a course of a career and the ups and downs of a career and peaks and valleys as it were because you came out of the actor studio and you got some jobs and some works and I you talked about a Wendy's commercial well the last time we spoke about how that was like I've made it right and then alias and whatnot so what sustained you through that that's a very good question you know yeah it's so funny I was just at the AFI every year they do this thing where they named it bets ten movies and they're that they choose to put into their catalogue and that someone tapped you on my shoulder and it was Ken Olin and Ken Olin was the showrunner and alias and this is mm so I came out here and to that we shot the pilot before 9/11 and then 9/11 and then and then I Kate and then we started seeing this series right after that and Ken Olin was the director of many of the episodes and I was so curious about how it was made so and he so I was literally like an albatross to him for a year and I would just spend all my time in his office and then like in the editing rooms I would ask to get all the dailies back and I would I remember asking him about like how do you figure out how to shoot a scene I mean there's so many possibilities and he was really um he was wonderful he's a he's hard he's not he's no so it was you know it wasn't like he was you know very gentle with me but but he did allow me to be around and the fact that I saw him yesterday and I thought what a journey you know cuz I I'd like left slashed got fired off of alias probably more than the latter and I was so depressed you know I was working like three days a week and I just thought oh my gosh like very very depressed I really thought oh this is not going to happen and that was a it sort of took my breath away because all you go on is hope and faith right that's it and it's like you try to grab it from wherever you can and when it's hard to find those places to grab it from it gets scary especially when you have no plan B and I never had a plan B ever I knew at that moment when I was a kid that this was it so it was kind of life or death is the way it felt those moments I assume you guys feel know what I'm talking about yeah right so so I'm always so happy when you watch award shows and you see great actors talk with about our profession with respect it makes me so happy you know when people are late cuz it I find it even you know I have to say even listening that backstage I was like man like yeah I definitely showed my soul on some of that stuff you know that's what we do it's I find it I really I think it's a privilege to do what we do because it really calls something upon us to be naked in front of people for them it's for them you know we're doing it for them we're trying to tell stories well it's like what you said when you watch a movie something and it teaches you something about your life that's what I think is so unique to this profession as you mirror the world back to itself and you allow people to feel things and think about things it is such a different way that they wouldn't have maybe before and that's the only way to do that is to be honest and that's what's so hard you know and that's that's what people react to is when oh they really feel like that character is going through it you know and and that that's what takes a you know a piece of our flesh so yeah yeah I agree with you so so what got me through it faith stuff stubborn luck that I that I kept getting breaks every now and then people then then then major things you know major things like the first one was JJ Abrams taking a chance with me and then I'd say was David Dobkin because after alia so it'd be and I remember going in audition so like you know he's just so nice he's so nice well Bradley is very nice I don't think he kidding there's no edge there's really no edge I remember hearing that no edge what the then the crazy with that I know you can relate to this too I think they're like no one's you're right I don't have any edge that's right because I was blond-haired blue-eyed in an Italian family I never looked like my cousins people thought I was a girl till I was eight you know like people say that you're like they're right they're right I don't have any edge you know so it's such this mindfuck that happens but then david dobkin took a chance on wedding crashers and i was able to play this guy and being in a world with thank you much for wedding crashers you stole every seat in that movie is so great that was such a fun fun role and you were so believable in it that's I want you to talk a little bit about this too because what's for me looking at your work and seeing you know the versatility in it one thing remains the same no matter how small or seemingly insignificant or how huge you always approach everything with the same amount of energy and focus and almost gratitude you have no judge which i think is really important for actors and especially ones that have longevity in their careers and to me I don't see that that often and you're someone that I've seen that from consistently thank you though judgement of the characters no judgment of the of the characters no judgement of the role no judgment of the like you no matter how small whatever I think that just had that comes down to pure love of doing it you know I'm very lucky that I love it so much there's no way you can go through a career no matter who you are if you don't love it I remember you know Anthony Hopkins was doing movies of the week before Sons of the Lambs you know I remember watching like a Jackie Collins movie on like CBS and he was like having like it's like hanky panky and the plane was somebody under sheets and that was Anthony Hopkins you know and by the way I would have killed to have that role if I movie the week I mean you know but like for him you know so it's like and no one has and there's no I don't know any career that's just like that certainly if you want to have longevity so you better love it because it's it's all about you know it not working until it does and people you know looking past you until they don't you know and the other exciting thing is it and you never know when it's gonna happen that's the other thing you could have your head in the ground for four for four years and all of a sudden someone says you know what this is you're perfect for this and all of a sudden everything changes so there's this something very exciting about that there's always hope you know there's always hope and now the wonderful thing about so much content out there there's so many ways for people to see the work I mean it's incredible it's just incredible on your phone on your computer and the theater and anywhere it is it's it's a disruption that I that to me I feel like leaning into it it's given us so much more it's available to everybody anywhere and I look at my kids responding to something never would have responded to before I mean I remember waiting and having to sit through the commercials Sunday just see it's just so much more so many more stories being told so there's just so much more work for us that that's there's just so many more shows really wonderful shows and it's crazy so along on the way like we were talking about wedding crashers what did you learn watching Vince Vaughn I'm so glad you asked that I learned a major thing so yeah I'm Vince Vaughn kind of changed the way I looked at acting in film here like huge like you know diamond to the skull awakening moment watching him I remember exactly the scene it's when he comes out when grandmom's trying to kill him with the shotgun and he comes running out of the house and I don't even think my character was there I can't remember but I remember watching him and he and then he's that's when he sort of confesses to loving iowa's character Gloria and so he you know every take he was you know we're down by where he's gonna wind up I remember and you hear the shotgun or whatever then and then he comes barreling out and he just did it different every time and he was doing this like jazz thing he started like singing to her it was crazy and he was so free and this big man in quotes you know manly man to me you know who's like the quick at that time he was like no one he was a slayer no one could touch him you know he was like the king and for him to be that vulnerable and willing to because not all that works you know and you're like I just can't believe how bold this guy is in those like plaid pants and a big shirt by the way doing it or whatever it was and and and I remember thinking like oh yeah you really have to be willing to fail that's you really and I look at Vince Vaughn I'm watching Vince Vaughn who I sort of look up like this from swingers like who's the coolest cat in the world just falling in his face getting back up trying it again and with zero it would look to me had zero you know thinking about what he was doing what's that word you know conscious the self consciousness there's no self consciousness at all and I remember thinking like oh that's how you get the gold oh you and by the way he didn't get fired I also realize like oh the director wasn't going why are you doing that you know it was like oh this is part of the process okay okay this is part of the process and I don't know if that was because I was on a television it was so fast and we had to do so many pages and I always felt like there was no room to - for me at least that's and it was just what I was in my mind I thought I have to get a write whatever which means nothing by the way there is no such thing so to be able to watch this wonderful artist who I also had you know had held up to this like idea of what I thought a man was being so vulnerable and willing to fail was fair it was like blew the doors off of what I what I thought the process of acting in film is and acting in general and and really from that moment on it really changed me as an actor and let's talk about when you first met Robert De Niro actually the real Robert De Niro yeah I mean I have a crazy history with Robert De Niro he came to our school and I had a question for him because I remember I'm one of my favorite movies at that time was awakenings and I wanted to ask him this very specific question about this tick that he had the character doing that to me just like summed up everything it was such a powerful moment I wanted to ask them and I was so embarrassed that maybe he would think what it was a stupid question and I remember they did and I never asked questions ever because I hated that they had they made you say like I'm so-and-so I'm on the acting track and sound was like I can't say that stuff I don't know why I just felt like I finally feel like an idiot saying that stuff so but so they're like two people right but I was like I have to ask for everything here this question I have to do it and then like so the one person asks I think they would do like three questions and then the second person got up and I thought well maybe that's a stupid question know what I'm gonna ask him some questions out the mission like did he know how to ride a horse before the movie like some stupid question that I didn't care about and the person right before me says so in the mission when you're riding the horse and I thought oh my god and then there was my question and I had to ask him the real question and and he's not very verbose during the whole interview and and not really been looking at James Lipton at all during the interview and then I still remember it he was like I asked him the question and he's like anyone like this everyone that's a good question and I'm like that's a good question and it was like a light shot through me and I'm not kidding and talk about the hope like things to grab on to I grabbed onto that moment for years I'm not kidding four years I was like you know what I risked it and Robert De Niro said it was a good question I'm not gonna give up and I asked the school if I could have a tape of it because they didn't put it in the show that question and and they said okay and they only gave me a copy of the real bird's eye view of it where you see like the whole but I had it I had that VHS thing that I would watch sometimes I know it's so sad it's so sad but we use whatever we can and they keep going answer the question he did he said I didn't see anybody do that but yeah this is exactly I think even yeah no no I didn't see anybody do that but yeah that's a good question that's what he said yeah well for you in speaking of physical and tics and whatnot the Elephant Man was so physical eight days a week there was no prosthetics it was all you it was the breathing the voice I mean what you saw there obviously you got a good indication of what it was like but to sit in the theater for two-plus hours and to watch you carry that and watch the physicality and the mode and the emotion of the every bit of that play and as an actor you're doing that eight days a week it's not like a movie right you're not like taking a break and going to get to craft and having a snack well take during the you know you're you're out there present how do you prepare for that and then sustain that over that period of time why the I had the huge advantage of having done it in grad school for the half-hour version of it night like I remember I bought a ticket to London and I never been to London before and I spent four days there and I went to the hospital and did all this research and just walked around and and that so I really learned I did quite a bit back then in 1999 so then fast forward to 2011 or 12 I thought oh I love Williamstown it's a great theatre festival and I thought oh let's Scott Ellis I had become friends with here's a great theater director I said I got for this crazy idea of doing the Elephant Man he was like oh no no I don't know nothing he said you know they just did that because Billy Crudup had just done it and it's it's not a good play and I don't know and I was like oh and I so I asked Victor Garber who I had met on a I said what about playing trees like no I don't know Bradley don't do that and I thought no I got to do it I got to do it and then thank god Patti Clarkson said yes so I when I met her I actually said if I ever do the Elephant Man would you ever play mrs. Kendall and I think she thought I was like what what are you talking about so we wound up doing that at Williamstown which was wonderful and it really because I thought look if it's horrible and people are laughing at me at least you know it's Williamstown and maybe we'll get away with it really that's what we thought and and and and we did it and it wasn't horrible and that that you do a three-week rehearsal and a two-week run there so it's five weeks of the summer and it really worked and and then it really was about taking that all those people even the people cause it's all run by students all of them to Broadway and then doing this show and I'd be we didn't read into it for I think two years later but kept the whole cast except except two people weren't available and so by the time I got to do on our Broadway I'd done two versions of over a span of like ten years so that's really a kind of wonderful relationship with the character and and it grew every time we did a run in New York and then we did a run in London so any think we wound up doing 398 performances all together and it did take it to hole on my body my my right hand got pretty messed up and the left side of my face got larger than the right side to this day actually if you look at a photo shouldn't say head but he's you see and yeah cuz you're my whole mouth was like that and but I love him so much that that man who lived in late 1800s and I respect him so much and I think it was and that was the first time I'd ever played a human being who existed on this earth and that privilege is immeasurable so I did was the love of him of a Marik that I think I never I didn't feel I mean I honestly didn't that the play would end and I didn't I wanted to keep doing it after London quite honestly I did I love it I mean died at 26 so you know I'm 44 to say so but I would not even kidding I would still love to do it I would love to do a run of it and I actually talked to Patti recently about should we do like as like a small run of it or something how different was your final performance in London to that first before I'm so different oh yeah and and Alessandro Nivola who played Frederick Treves we talked about a lot and we never stopped trying to make it better and exploring I mean especially him I have to say he is this huge monologue at the end of the play and he was like screaming and thumping around by the time we did the final performance in London and I remember my characters upstage looking up I was crying because I was so moved at how bold he was because we were just we would work on everything talked about said what do you have to yell why are you yelling like what are you actually saying what's going on and that last performance I don't think he's yelled once so that the you know that the for him to like take a chance and work on something in front of 880 people was so moving to me so he really he really got dug deeper and deeper with Treves okay so todd phillips hangover hangover that movie still holds up it still holds up yeah seas of scenes and your I was looking at it just knowing that I was going to talk to you I was looking at a couple of clips it was like actually laughing remembering is very very funny moments but after that I remember from a journalist point of view like everything changed for you suddenly Bradley Cooper's world and we were just kind of living in it and you did the obviously you had the sequel's to it but was most interesting to me after that moment was the choices you made were really risky from the standpoint of like wow he's gonna work with David O'Russell who I think is a mad genius but he's also a little mad and you never know it's not a guarantee you just don't know and I thought it was so I'd like for you to just talk to to everybody but for me personally that question it's so interesting to watch what someone does once they've hit that success or when they have so many choices what are the choices that you make Todd Phillips one of the examples of someone who you know where you're waiting for that hope that you know that's someone to believe in you I was doing a play called the understudy in Williamstown and I had met Todd Phillips for The Hangover like four or five months earlier and I think they had cast it and then the actors didn't want to do it so we we were kind of like the Bad News Bears crew of The Hangover that finally got cast but I was gonna give I was gonna give after the understudy I was gonna quit and and not do acting anymore and and he emailed me while I was at Williamstown and said let's do the movie like I thought it was a joke I thought it was one of my friends who pulled a joke I've been that was so that was one of those moments and then we wound up doing and while we were filming and I remember thinking out whether there's something about this movie that's very special because we didn't even know if it was a comedy we would like be eating in nine days you know like what is this movie like this naked guy just jumped out of a trunk and it was funny but it was also really weird and scary and it hurt a lot grown man on your net on your shoulders you know hitting you with a crowbar naked so and so he was one of the people that really and to this day we're partners now and I can't believe that he's one of my best friends I never would have thought that that evolu would have ever happened and I can't wait for you to see the movie he just did I mean I think it's gonna be really something but yeah yeah a lot of opportunity that was definitely I definitely felt that and and I have to say I think it's part of like you know the luck I did a movie called the a-team which I think was after hangover one if I'm correct and playing a character called face now that to me was like it's so weird because I thought oh that I had really have to act in order for this to pull this off and it was really trying to do something I did not feel connected to at all and and I think if that movie had worked I think it would have been really bad for me as an actor and I actually think it was a huge blessing that movie didn't work honestly you know because I wasn't really I never felt I was like trying that's why I think I got so ripped because like I don't have such a great face so maybe I'll just work out a lot I'm C I'm just being honest with you and and it didn't work and then Neil burger had this movie called dark fields that I thought was incredible and I had auditioned for it a long time ago and Heath Ledger was going to do it and he passed away and then they changed it to limitless and a Dixon a great writer wrote who wrote mrs. Doubtfire wrote that script and and for some reason they took a chance to cast me in limitless and that really was the first time that I felt like I really had an opportunity to do something that that I was very excited about as an actor in a real way and that was the first time I worked with Robert De Niro so that movie was a huge thing the fact that movie worked was a major major thing and they thought we thought they didn't think you know was it was a studio that never had a hit I don't think and and there was nobody in a really except for Robert De Niro and and it was an Court of thing and and a budget that the studios were making movies for that budget and I remember they were thinking he was going to open to like fourth it was late and it did really well way beyond what they thought so that really provided a huge opportunity and that was your first lead right was the first Oh what midnight betray which I have to say was a wonderful experience because Ruby kita Mora who was the director was so collaborative and and that was the first time I was able to really be I felt like I was really a part of the storytelling with him and I actually liked that movie a lot and I got to meet Vinnie Jones who I love and and Leslie Bibb who's a great actor and and there were other great actors in that movie but yeah here's the thing I've always been clear to me what I want to do I just want to grow I just want to become better and so the idea of playing the same person the character makes no sense it's not even I wouldn't even I couldn't do it I don't think so I've always wanted to whatever opportunity could to play different things to do it and how much did you grow as an actor working with David oh oh I mean not only as an actor as a person you know he invited me into his process to such a huge degree there's no way I would have wrote and directed stars born if I hadn't done three movies with David O'Russell no way then I would have thought you know what I think I can do this there's no way that would have happened he's just so wonderful I found a real chemistry with him actor to director in a way that I felt like I could really go on the field and do what's happening in his head and I think that he felt that for me and it was a really wonderful relationship and is a wonderful relationship yeah I can't I can't say enough about that but you know place beyond the pines was right before that I learned a lot from Derek C and France he's incredible also there was this run for you right in like 2008 and 2009 there was like a lot of movies came out and you mentioned the midnight mean train I remember every act or auditioning for that and it was like oh bradley cooper got that yeah i was i remembered the clocking that moment which is so funny but it's just a funny title of a movie and it's fun to say over and over again but it was released in $101 theaters yeah that was the release of that movie oh really yeah $101 theaters is that like is that like a platform then you're going wide what in December I didn't even know what that meant then what ever ever thinking oh that's not good that's not good working with so many different directors and I visited sets before with David O'Russell as he said earlier I'm a fan of his I'm friendly with him and he's like screaming at his actors and talking his actors well the cameras are rolling like how do you focus and and stay on point working with him and then I were going to talk about a couple of other big directors you've worked with I think it comes down to love again it's all about love and I never in all the times I've worked with him ever felt that he was coming from a different place than from love and love of telling this story that he's trying to get out of him of here and here on on to the set and then have it so he can edit it I know so because I felt that from him and that it was all with love I was willing to go wherever he wanted me to go if I ever felt that he wasn't coming from love which he never did but I've been in on sets when I felt that from a director that was coming from a place of ego or I don't know what's happening I just shut down you know immediately it's like I just you can't I don't know how to again getting back to what I was saying in the beginning you know how can you give a part of your soul if you're not in an environment that you feel comfortable I can't do it I've been in a pullet situation doing a play where I lost 18 pounds in rehearsal because I felt that thing and I thought I'm not going to be able to do this and it was it was horrific and it'll never be that bad again I remember saying I don't never be that bad again and I never let it be that bad again so so with him for me as an actor who was wonderful because to me was always so clear me you look in his eyes to me and you know that it's love it's just always coming from love and he's a wonderful director a wonderful director and you got two nominations off of you know obviously in silver linings and then again in American hustle and you worked with you talk about you know we've talked a lot about the men that you've worked with what about the women I mean Jennifer Lawrence has been amazing Amy Adams I think about your your co-stars I've been lucky from the beginning I have to say the first job I ever had was with Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex in the City and then I got to work with Rachel McAdams and wedding crashers and Jennifer Garner and aeleus and then Julia Roberts on Broadway and then in Valentine's Day and Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Connelly and he's just not that into you I mean I've literally worked with scrappy post and then Emma Stone and Aloha and obviously Sienna Miller who I just think is the greatest at Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lawrence I mean I've worked with incredible women incredible and have you learned from them along the way as well nothing nothing of course you know Julia Roberts look first of all Jennifer Garner I learned so much from because I was just I just first I watched somebody go from being like a theater actor into a star in a year you know she like I watched that thing happened I was like holy up with Elias because it was a big deal and at least it felt that way to us you know and she was like all of a sudden the cover Rolling Stone magazine and doing Steven Spielberg's movie it scene with Leonardo DiCaprio and I was like I remember like shooting the pilot on that UCLA around the track she was like a girl in a scrunchie that was like walking around you know absolutely it was that role catapulted her into star yes so that was quite a thing to witness and to see the grace with which she handled that and maintained stay who she was from the person that like baked cookies for me when I arrived in LA you know that never changed that and getting a car every Friday she would have you know like a truck come for the set and she says she got we all went to Disneyland for the wrap party of the first season of alias you know just always thinking about other people blew me away I learned a lot Julia Roberts is just a powerhouse she had never done a play before and she does three days of rain on Broadway and and we got eviscerated you know it was not well reviewed and I never forget like and I thought oh Jesus and the day I'll never forget the day after I remembered I remember James Gandolfini sent this like beautiful but I shouldn't tell the story though but beautiful bouquet of flowers with a huge like super sada in there and he's like shove that up the reviewers ass and I thought he's the best it was amazing and and and and she showed up the next day the next night after the opening night and it like like just like nothing and did it with joy and we had an amazing run and I thought wow I was like wow because there was a lot of pressure on her to do that you know it was like and she was wonderful in it for me I loved working with her so she taught me a lot rachel mcadams I just again you know there were so many wedding crashers she catapulted it was again watching somebody like you know all of a sudden just like burst out I was amazed at what a wonderful actress she is I remember being in the scenes with her like wow she's really present I better like listen to what she's saying because because she's actually talking to me I better stop acting because she's really waiting for me to talk to her and I just stopped acting right now Jennifer Lawrence was like watching somebody who has talent tripping off of their hands and doesn't like this she was 21 years old and she just like has all this talent and we were shooting for like two weeks and she came on I think we were weak and she came on and I remember David O'Russell and I looking at each other after first take it like oh my god like and she got his rhythm really fast and she's so smart and understand story and everything and and then just to watch her grow again I watched somebody else just like skyrocket because Hunger Games hadn't come out yet but she had shot the first one and I remember being in because then we she and I did a movie right after that called Serena we were in Prague together and it still hadn't come out yet and then watching with the character she created an American hustle and then to take a whole movie on her shoulders and joy you know it was really incredible and Emma Stone to me is one of the greatest people I've ever met in my I love Emma so much oh and Sandra Bullock I got to me I got to work with her to everybody it's kind of amazing all right well I want to ask you about Clint Eastwood before we go to Stars born he couldn't be more different obviously than David O'Russell or De Niro or anybody he's such a unique individual and he he has said before that you have remind him a lot of of himself as a young man as a young artist and you guys seemed to have said that you did and he actually talked about it that you remind him a lot of himself and your curiosity about every aspect and about your and and I could we could all witness this to you you have the childlike innocence still about every part of your job and this business really even starting a production company and developing material and doing television and you know it's it's like I said earlier but what is it about you and Clint what can you share with us about that experience of working with him and getting someone I guess like him to see you why I had auditioned for everything he had ever done he was one of those people that I thought again that we thought we knew at home plenty so it was one of those people went Unforgiven you know and gene Hackman - we knew Gene Hackman he was like he was another uncle I had right I mean Unforgiven was one of those movies that that you know infected me in a way that uh you know it's it's just I couldn't believe you know when you watch a movie like I can't believe there were cameras it just feels like some magical lens was there capturing something that really happened you know so he was like a major Leica for all of us or a lot of us I'm sure you know really just kind of daunting figure to me and then also I also know in the back of my mind that he had waited to direct until he was 40 play misty for me it came I think when he was 41 but I think he was 40 or 41 when he actually did it and and then that he was a jazz player then he made a living playing the piano and then you know he was a depression-era kid and like you know his story is just so so crazy and then he was a television that he was like bopping around and like was and he didn't hit it to leave his older you know and rawhide it happened later and then you know the Spaghetti Westerns the thing that brought him back but he didn't like come on to the scene and like become a huge star he really paid his dues that people I don't know if people realize that you know and Robert DeNiro also not somebody who just skyrocketed them it he came it was until 35 I think until they did the taxi driver I think or mean streets so I just so I loved him and I always wanted to work with him so I auditioned for everything and he never met actors at least my experience he always had to put yourself on tape so I just put myself on tape for Flags of Our Fathers and I grant Trina to play the Irish priest and to play J Edgar's lover in j.edgar and never got anything and and I thought but I always felt like maybe it was gonna happen and then and then he was gonna do a stars born and and I don't know if somebody fell out or something or he had an idea to meet me and so I went met him and that I think that was the first time I met him and walked into his you know bungalow and there's a piano and then it's Clint Eastwood sitting on the couch that was like I cannot believe it in his sneakers and like looking exactly like Clint Eastwood and and then he was so cool he was so present and like and I all of a sudden I felt comfortable the same way that Robert De Niro made me feel comfortable less comfortable it made me feel more comfortable nothing that gets Bobby just is like a little disconnect you know or whatever that is but but but Clint was like so just warm and like and IA great he looked like a jazz musician which is what he is and and I just thought he's the greatest guy in the world and it didn't work out then and then I was gonna do a sniper and then it was actually great sermon so you know Clint may want to do this and then we wound up doing American sniper and it was just more of that that initial meeting I had with him that's the way that's the guy that I know today like you know he's come over to my house and I remember he came over to my house and like parked down the street he's like walking up the street you know we went to visit taya Kyle in in Texas and he's like you know let's go visit eya and I was like I so I figured it was gonna be like I don't know I wouldn't even see him and I was like me and him we checked into the Days Inn like he called the hope that he called my room and he's like yeah that do you want to get some yogurt before we go over I was like okay Clint yeah meet you in the lobby I don't think they have yogurt at the Days Inn but maybe there's the there's the drugstore next door I don't you know like there was no assistant and you know it was like he was it was a he drives like his Aldi from 1980 you know like it was crazy and I think I was like oh you can be normal and be in this profession and have that kind of success it was a real testament to like oh yeah you could choose how you want to live no matter what and and so I really admire that about him you know and it's the truth it's the total truth it's the total truth it's really funny so I remember the 8th we were doing the press tour for a team you know you need security your security and when you're going the to where I was like oh yeah yeah yeah like going the hotels like three guys okay we're gonna put your thing up there and I'm like there's nothing now I like that I drove here you know it's like it's like it's like you don't have to like it's like a joke now I'd like think it's a like ant believe I even had allowed that to happen in a team but like you really can choose to do that you know and and and meeting Clinton watching him was really wonderful to see and and just the way he directs he doesn't I took so much from him you know he know you always never he always shoots the rehearsal I always do that I don't don't say action or cut and just how free he makes you feel just open again again that environment of feeling comfortable to risk he creates that same thing and I actually feel like he is similar to day but a Russell oddly enough and the fact that they both are about rhythm you know it's a different rhythm but its rhythm and it's loose and it's the minute you walk on to the set even if it's you know at craft service you kind of got to be into the groove to go because it you're gonna you can be called to go in two seconds especially Clint who moves very fast and that in Chris Kyle right that yes is one of another person that was based on someone that was alive I want to you're just one of my favorite performances of yours as well I have to say you totally transformed all right well now we're gonna leave the stage but we are going to come back but you guys are going to watch a clip of this movie stars born I think is that it yeah and then we're going to come back and talk about that [Applause] was so great listening to that in the dark and being reminded of how good those scenes are out the quiet scenes in that movie are just as good as the big the big numbers and the big singing and all the other stuff the production that goes into it it's what I love about this film is this quiet little moment throughout you know you know it's funny about what it's not funny but the I'm just think about I said Gabe Fazio I went to grad school Gabe Fazio's the guy who comes up to Jackson in the bar and says let me take the picture that's the best thing about directing a movie is that because you know luck has played a huge part in my career huge and Gabe Fazio was the best actor in our school and he hasn't been as lucky as I've been and so to be able to be in a place not charity he's the greatest and I was like hey man can you come could we let's have fun and do this together and I he's so good that scene we actually did place beyond the pines together - he plays that we're partners in place beyond the pines - and Linnell who's the cashier I met on all about Steve she's a stand-up comic and I remember thinking oh she would be perfect and she just does it perfectly so you know that's the coolest thing in the world man yeah that's the best thing you know to be able to do that and then have them come and crush it and then you just look at the producer like see they look at my dog my dog killed it you wanted some other dog look at that who Charlie did great it was great so this film kind of had everything in it for you I mean it to me it had you had to be fearless you had to be vulnerable you had to be you know get outside your comfort zone you had to become a rock star you had a sing you had to write you had learned to play guitar piano you took a risk on someone who wasn't an actress was this larger-than-life figure in this world with oh I don't even know how to describe Lady gaga it's amazing that you didn't fail and I know because I was one of them was like why do you why is he doing this oh my god it's stars born oh my god it's so tough it's the fourth incarnation we've some people are attached to the Judy Garland some people are attached to the one in 1937 with Janet you know or the Kris Kristofferson one but it spoke to you and I and I feel like if you had to do all of it and you never could have done this movie had you not done everything you've done up until the moment you started this movie oh yeah well of course anything you were doing right I wouldn't be able to do this interview if it like this talk if we weren't you know yeah of course everything you were made up of everything we've done before and all the things we talked about led to that to this absolutely absolutely you know did at that moment doing that play that bottom I hit being like it'll never get this bad it's never gotten that bad and then it got bad you know when you have that pressure of you got to make your day and the price and like you know I mean so many factors that have nothing to do with creating art that that that that created pressure but because I've been through war before in other ways I was able to you know I knew I knew it was like you know what I'm in myself that I could do it you know it's funny thinking about like things you hold on to there were there were a year I always felt like my real talent I thought like maybe I should have been an agent because I always thought I was like I can always see the best in people and what they could be great for I always felt that way and I felt like I maybe I'm not really talented because but I know one thing I know for sure is like I can see if I meet somebody they're like I don't know I could always see stuff like that I felt and then I thought but then I was like oh but I could use it as that that that talent it story telling a story because then I could ask people to come do it who I think are perfect and and I felt like I was right you know Andrew Dice Clay perfect you know Sam Elliott well that was not a hard one you know but like Stephanie I met her I heard her sing and then I met her and I looked at her eyes and it was like she could do it no question if she works hard you know we all have to work hard that hat that's that has to happen you don't work hard you it's over thank God thank God thank God it's hard I'm so happy it's hard that's the only way we can get a leg up on anybody is to work harder than them it's the truth but if there you see something and you're like yes and I was like oh I saw her soul and I could and I loved her voice and I heard this idea of high water Jax's voice to be in her natural voice it's a perfect combination speaking voice on time and then like just her face and her eyes and like her energy it was like if I could just capture that if that can then infuse into Allie were gold you know and it was the same thing with Dave Chapelle I met Dave Chappelle and I was like he has got we've got to do this relationship that he and I have there's some it's perfect and and he's so he's well he's just incredible but and I was I wasn't wrong I mean I love that scene that seems much longer and I had to cut it down but he's just I just man I could watch that kind of camera all day long he's just he talked about not acting I mean he was talking about was like holy he's talking to me he's like talking to me here I thought I thought I was gonna die worried about I'm worried about me hey is there something out of the helices because you're looking at me and like now I'm worried that kind of truth holy man you're so good dude what what did you learn about acting from being a director well you know it's wonderful as I felt a lot less pressure as an actor because I wasn't trying to please somebody else I didn't there wasn't a part of my brain that was trying to figure out what that person wanted from me I'd literally just thinking about this right now and that was very freeing because all I had to do all I could do was just explore that was it I was so free to explore there wasn't a a father or mother figure that I felt like I had to do the right take getting back to Elias doing the right way I was like oh there is no right way yeah there's just exploring going as deep as you can and that was very freeing very freeing and I think that's why and I hope that it's impossible because I obviously was director so the other actors couldn't feel that way but I tried to create that environment for them too and I think that me being an actor with them in the scenes with them for most of the movie that's the best shot I had at them feeling the same way I did as an actor on that set how challenging was it to keep in the moment when you're thinking about how's the light on her house the house this evening because I was out of my head as the actor I learned that on Elephant Man because there were so many physical afflictions that Merrick was going through that I was thinking about her had it yet had to work on his emotional life and what he was going through was it was coming from here as opposed to because so much in my head was taken up with the thing and the thing and the breathing in the nose and he didn't this is a deviated septum and it's scoliosis you know and so that I never even thought about the emotional life I just sort of created this character and then I'm talking to these actors to these characters so for Jackson main especially like when we jumped on there's no way yeah we jumped Jackson jumped on real stages so we iced Jackson because I say that because it wasn't me cuz I wanted done it honestly I hid behind that in front of 80,000 people at Glastonbury there's no way if you said hey Bradley do you want to go sing in front of 80,000 people in the Pyramid stage and Glastonbury music festival like you no no no but because I was like this is the moment of the movie this is the shot I want to get we have four minutes to do it Maddy's gonna be here my buddy's gonna do the other camera the sounds not right what we don't have four minutes we got to go with that microphone was gonna be in the shot okay hold on what if they throw bottles well I'll just incorporate that into the movie okay because it cost a lot to fly here okay you don't I mean and actually no I'm singing and the same thing with stagecoach we had eight minutes and it was in front of 25,000 people and that was like big things was this song I just written this black guy's wound up being the opening of the movie and it was like okay we got to get the cameras at the same I wanted like dueling guitars and the thing here and I get this a round thing because this that the arc of the you know all these things I'm talking about so the last thing I was thinking about was singing and but I'd worked hard don't get me wrong I'd already done all the work but I guess one time but I was able to let go so for me also as the actor had that director brain allowed the actor to get out of his head that's what it did for me that's it this is the first time that you've ever sung we're eight I mean you haven't sung yeah like to this level no it's the first time yeah I mean yeah I mean I mean yeah I mean I sang gospel choir Georgetown but not really and you know we took voice class in grad school but no I'm not a say I was not a singer before this movie no I had to work like a Trojan and I work with this guy Roger love in LA incredible five days a week and I work with Lukas Nelson because I was terrified that I was going to fail so that's a big motivator you know that's a really big motivator I think the reason why this movie resonates so much is you just believe you just believe you two so much you you're so vested and watching in the audience at least for me eyes like I believed her and I believed you and I believe she was that all the way through and it I kept wanting it to have a different ending it's like oh is he gonna end it the way they they end this movie or is there gonna be some some different twist but oddly I ended up feeling hopeful hopeful about and it is so sad obviously I'm not ruining the inning for anybody but it did have it was such a love story and I love the week if it's so simple and the stuff between the brothers and the stuff with the father was like yet this simple story that just has all these layers to it really excellent oh thank you you know I'm glad you said hope because I feel that way about the movie yeah all right I'm gonna ask some questions from some people here I love that it's in your own handwriting so bear with me for a second while I decipher everybody's [Music] alright this is from Lauren I watched silver linings playbook after a breakup and it actually helped me cope I ended up watching it every day for a month do you have a movie that helped you at some point in your life get over a hardship oh yeah I mean oh my gosh sometimes I didn't even know the hardship I was getting over watching it it just affected me so much I mean maybe I think movies have made made me feel like life is meaningful I think that's the hardship of like is life meaningful no this is getting heavy but my initial response was like yeah pocalypse now did that for me I can't really tell you how it did it but I know that it gave me purpose to watch it I felt like there was purpose in my life because I got watch it the loneliness is a long-distance runner diving down the butterfly I think helped me with my father who had passed away yeah movies really do and this is from Mounier what are your three do's and don'ts for actor when directing three do's and don'ts for the actor yeah for actors when directing like what did you learn about maybe the other four then not to do oh I want them to do anything yeah that's like but I don't want to do that tell them not to do something yeah that's that that's not starting off on the right foot so but but like to be more specific like what would I encourage them to maybe you know I would encourage them to risk listening to the other actor I would encourage them to risk risk failing and I would encourage them to listen to me and trust me because I'm not gonna you know that that that you just trust me please trust me that that's definitely what I asked all the actors just you know the one thing I asked you is like once you decided to say yes to this movie just if I if I asked you to try something really trust me to try it please you know and that's the relationship the director and the actor it has to be that way otherwise what are you doing you know if you're kind of like this with director like you know that's not a great way to create art you know and I think that's why David I trusted David so I mean there's a lot of horrible stuff I tried I mean we didn't really know who Pat solatano was and we did like three levels of his condition in the first two weeks of shooting the movie so we would do those scenes in like three very different ways that that really in the editing room we found that balance but you know on the day it was it was really weird there's some weird stuff happened and you know like I remember when he calls when he's trying to call Nikki and and his dad's taking this the phone away right before the cop knocks on the door I mean I remember we went so crazy and that scene ended and David's after he cut he said well that was this the whole movie that was the whole movie and that's team say we can't do the whole movie in 1c we're like all Jacki Weaver Bob and I were all on the floor hugging each other crying at the end of that scene is like well that that was wonderful but that can't be the movie because there's no more movie after that so so yeah just but listening to your director to just try anything how much did you work with the character of Jackson Maine what would you start it stars born were you already did you did his character change it all through the process food rehearsal where you pretty much dead sizes of shooting a rehearsal rehearsal oh yeah I mean with rehearsal processing Mike I'm sorry it's a little inarticulate I think that really one of the things that stuck with me in grad school was reading buck tag off who talked who sort of had this talk about that rehearsal starts with like the moment you'd like even think about the character so so it changed it changed all the way through the mixing of the movie you know depending on how like you know I was just thinking about that listening to the you know we the weight that you know that the choices of using those cars passing a distance of as for rhythm of the scene and the wind blowing using that hair then accentuating the wind you know when you're telling his stories director it's it's hard to talk about it as an actor or director because Jackson changed throughout the process of writing him and then shooting him and editing him and mixing him you know but internally as an actor yeah Jackson was evolving every day yeah I mean every every single day but I believed I was Jackson on the first day of shooting fully and because if I didn't that were yeah no I fully believed I was him did I learn about him through shooting a tremendous amount as we learn about ourselves as we every day we get up but I believed I was him fully full stop no question and and that took a tremendous amount of work to get to that point but I I can't show up on set if I know well I could and then I'd be terrified because then I'd be really faking it if I don't believe it and that was I was terrified to play Chris Carr because I thought well how am I gonna get to a place where I believe I'm Chris Kyle but that's like a prerequisite for actors you know and I've and I've been there when I don't believe it and that's not a fun place to act from you know what I mean I mean you know when you're like oh if I didn't really have enough time and I don't know I'm terrified and this person scary and I don't believe anything and now I'm just gonna really act like a lot and that's just not fun you feel like you're faking it at the fun the fun for us is to live an imaginary circumstance and believe it right that's and then you just and all of a sudden that ends and you feel like you're levitating that's the high of acting all right there's questions from Keeley field what would you tell your younger self if you were sitting in that seat at the Actors Studio so many years ago don't quit it doe do not quit and don't listen to anybody who's gonna be negative I know that's what you're gonna listen to but don't do it try not to do it I know you're not even gonna listen to me because I'm being positive right now to you but don't do it because it's just poisonous and they're probably projecting onto you what about them it doesn't mean anything they're probably not even thinking about you anyway so don't even listen to it and god that means more today than ever before Jesus with social media and everything I mean cause is if you want to feel shitty about yourself it doesn't take much you know so it's like try to just put those blinders on man you don't read reviews or anything god no yeah I read daily the truth is I read one review of this movie and it was a bad review yeah by chance or on purpose I grew up loving this this magazine and I saw the font on my newsfeed I was like and I just like lured me in and it's just a viscera to the filming I was like oh my god but you know what good for you you shouldn't read that review you said you don't review you never write you stop reading reviews after that play three days of rain that's the last time I read a review and but I read I read that review yeah but you know what I got over it yeah it didn't roll right off so now you've directed your movie a movie that you also start in what's next for you do you want to direct again do you see yourself acting in I know there's a lot of things on your IMDB page that are in in production or the Leonard Bernstein was announced but do you have a new goal for yourself yeah that's the one yeah yeah I love I love it deeply I can't believe I found something that I love so much so yeah I'm deep in it something else I love and it'll probably take for years again but I'm just so happy that I found the story I want to tell I was never more happy than than doing this movie artistically ever and if I could just do this the rest of my life as I would be so lucky but I like acting in it too I love acting so and I definitely want to do plays I think it's so important to do plays for me as an actor is essential you know talk about like you know because film you know you talk about serving other masters but a play is an actor's medium and it just is I think you know because the director leaves after and the playwright is not there it's you you you and your cast you you create the rhythm and have to carry the ball of energy every night and it's just there's nowhere to hide so I just think and it just makes you talk about like moment to moment but reality as an actor living in the moment to play just there's no there's no better training I don't think and I just love i love this immediacy i love it i love it would you have any last advice for this crew here is that's one of the questions is from from connor about any words of wisdom for young actor or older actor who is if he's a few years into his career fine like-minded people that you can start working and creating with and and and try and try not to wait for that thing to happen I mean you can be waiting for that thing to happen or hoping for that thing to happen but in the meantime don't stop keeping the instrument you know tuned up that's the key and and to be honest you know part of doing this stars born as I got to a place where I you know there are a lot of their wonderful directors that just don't want to work with me and I thought well am I gonna sit around and try to wait and write them emails which I've written and they never written back or am I just gonna make my own thing dude and literally and that's what of what that that was a big motivator honestly it's like way I'm 40 years old and what am I going to be doing just like waiting around this is crazy so no matter what age you are just keep keep creating and find people and if you find people hold on to them God hold on to them because that's it we need each other alright I have there's one more question without they're in the audience I think I need it the tall blonde in the back you had a question thank you thank you that's a little surprise attack by Laura Dern in case you Wow no there's one of the best actors alive right there and people I can't believe you just sat through this you didn't you just came in know this guy it's been an absolute pleasure to say thank you as well thank you you guys thank guys are an awesome audience and happy new year [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 213,329

Rating: 4.830955 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Bradley Cooper, Krista Smith, Q&A, Interview, Career, Conversations

Id: 5uvvQmdDEPo

Length: 77min 13sec (4633 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 11 2019