“A Star is Born” is not only one of Bradley Cooper’s most highly-anticipated films due to his incredible performance as Jackson Maine in the lead role, but also because the film marks the first time Cooper has donned the director’s cap. And by all the early reviews, it appears that the actor probably should have done it a lot sooner because “A Star is Born” has turned into an early awards season frontrunner.
In a new profile with the New York Times, we find out why Cooper finally chose 2018 and “A Star is Born” to debut as a director and why he initially turned down the role almost a decade ago. He also answers the question about how much of the film is autobiographical, considering he’s a star, but not actually a rock star.
“I guess I felt like I wasn’t utilizing all of myself,” he said when asked why he decided to step behind the camera for the first time.
And he felt that “A Star is Born” is the perfect film for him to showcase his talents because Cooper feels he has a natural ability to play a musician, if not the musical talent. “There’s always been, like, six characters I’ve always thought I can play in my life,” Cooper said. “And one of them is a musician.” He goes on to elaborate that the others are the title role in “The Elephant Man” (which he did on Broadway), a soldier (which landed him an Oscar nom in “American Sniper”), and a chef (see the oft-forgetten Cooper film “Burnt”). The other two roles? Well, he didn’t spill the beans.
All that being said, in 2011, when Clint Eastwood came to Cooper with the role as the lead in “A Star is Born,” which Eastwood would have directed with Beyoncé as Cooper’s co-star, the actor turned it down. “I knew I would be acting my balls off to try to be what that character was, because I was just too — I just hadn’t lived enough, I just knew it,” he said.
Several years later, in 2015, the actor had a change of heart, saying, “Honestly, I could see it on my face. I just felt it.”
But reading the lines is only the bare minimum when it comes to acting in “A Star is Born.” Not only did Cooper have to find the right actress to star opposite him (who could also sing, mind you), he had to learn how to play the guitar and piano, which he did. And not just for the camera either, he’s a full-fledged musician, now.
And that commitment came from casting Lady Gaga as his co-star. He explains, “The world had to match her, because if the world’s not authentic, and then you have this authentic person in it, it’s going to, like, destroy the whole film. So, I just knew that I had to literally become the real guy, and the movie had to be, had to look like the real thing.”
So, after years at being one of the biggest stars in the world, the obvious question is how much of his personal experience can be seen in “A Star is Born.” Cooper is mum on the details but says that the film is still deeply personal.
“The stories that exist in this story, it comes from a very deep personal place and that’s the only way that I know how to communicate with many people,” he says.
Cooper continues, “I don’t know who Martin Scorsese is as a human being, but I don’t actually want to know, but I feel that his movies feel very, very personal and they affect me and my hunch is he’s working out of a very personal place.”
“And my hope is that — and that’s the thing about art — in creating this story you did learn a lot about me,” he concludes.
Well, autobiographical or complete fiction, “A Star is Born” is already connecting with critics, and audiences are surely going to eat it up when it hits theaters October 5. Hopefully, we don’t wait too long to see when Cooper steps behind the camera again.