Bradley Cooper has found his fair share of critical acclaim in the Hollywood awards circuit, but according to the actor, that hasn’t always made him popular with peers. In a new interview with IndieWire’s SmartLess podcast, the nine-time Oscar nominee recalls the moment he’ll “never fucking forget” when an unnamed director allegedly teased Cooper for his Academy Award nominations.
According to Cooper, while discussing his body of work with a famous director and a female actor at an agency party, the director brought up that the female actor had only three Oscar nominations to her name. The director allegedly then asked Cooper: “What world are we living in where you have seven nominations and she’s only got three?”
““I’m like, ‘Bro, why are you such an asshole,’” Cooper recalls of his reaction to the comment. “’Go fuck yourself.’” Cooper says the conversation happened just after his directorial debut, 2018's A Star is Born, garnered three Oscar nominations.
Cooper, who shares that he had “zero self-esteem” and felt “worthless” at the beginning of his career, also says he experienced condescending comments after he received acclaim for his role in 2012's Silver Linings Playbook. Cooper and his co-star Jennifer Lawrence were both nominated in leading acting categories at the Oscars for their roles in the film—Lawrence won the Academy Award for Best Actress that year.
Although the nod for Silver Linings Playbook marked Cooper’s first Oscar nomination, the actor says he still received the side eye from Hollywood’s elite afterward. In the interview, Cooper highlights one time shortly after the nomination when he says a “hero female actor” approached him with a bitingly sarcastic congratulations.
“She’s like, ‘I saw your movie. You deserve the nom,’” Cooper said. “I was like, ‘What? I’m sorry, what?’ ‘The nom.’ Then like 10 or 20 minutes later — I’m not kidding — I passed her going to the bathroom and she mouths it, ‘The nom.’ I remember [thinking], what the fuck is this town? Can you imagine saying that to somebody? You’ve got to be fucked up to do that.”