The 'A Star is Born' actor revealed why it's been years since he has had to go through the process.
Bradley Cooper has been skipping the audition process for films. The Nightmare Alley star recently spoke with fellow actor Mahershala Ali for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series and revealed the last time he actually had to audition.
“Last time I auditioned was Paradise Lost,” he told Ali. “I put myself on tape with my buddy Wes to play Satan, and we were going to do it. This was 2012, I think. And I got the role. I was so happy. It wound up not coming together."
However, Cooper shared that he’s not above the process. In fact, he would do it in a heartbeat. “I would audition tomorrow for something. Whatever the director needs to make the decision,” he said.
“I put myself into a position starting after American Sniper, where [I was] trying to create my own content,” he added. “With American Sniper, I got the book and I put the work in, asked Clint Eastwood to direct it; we spent the time and got the script right and took it from the beginning of an idea all the way to the end. A Star Is Born even more so — actually writing it from just an idea or a feeling of wanting to do something with music, and maybe I’ve always wanted to be a musician. And I wanted to tell a love story, and I wanted there to be singing.”
He continued, “A lot of that was because the directors I admired weren’t hiring me and because they have already made a decision in their mind whether you’re right or not for something. So once you pass that audition point, but then you become like, 'Oh, I know Mahershala.' Do you know what I mean?”
Cooper shared that even though he was creating his own films and working, he still had some insecurities when it came to presenting himself in the industry.
“Nightmare Alley was an interesting example of how insecure I am. I was like, 'Oh, I guess I still am the guy that wants to be in the group,' because I had no intention of acting in anything other than what I’ve been writing,” he said about his latest role.
“Leonardo DiCaprio fell out, and Guillermo del Toro came to me. I still remember thinking, 'Oh wow, the guys that don’t hire me, they want to hire me?' And then it was like, 'Of course I have to do it just because I’ve never been allowed into that group.' It was insecurity and ego,” he explained.
“Thankfully, it wound up being an incredible experience,” Cooper added. “And that was very interesting to me to play a character, Stanton Carlisle, who has clearly been traumatized as a kid, has no parental foundation, has no foundation for love, intimacy, real connection, and he just is surviving off of a gratification and a desperate need to find out who he is.”
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