Bradley Cooper has recalled being mocked by peers for his Oscar nominations.
The actor currently has nine Academy Award nominations, earning his latest in 2022 for Best Picture for Nightmare Alley, on which he was a producer.
Speaking to Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes on a recent episode of their SmartLess podcast, Cooper recounted the moment when, during an Oscars party thrown by agency CAA, he was scorned for his accolades.
According to the actor, he was standing next to a director and a “dear friend who’s an actress” when the director said to him: “What world are we living in where you have seven nominations and she’s only got three?”
At the time, the actor had just received three nods for his Oscar-winning directorial debut, A Star is Born.
“And I remember I was like, ‘I f***ing hate this business,’” Cooper said. “I’m like, ‘Bro, why are you such an a**hole.’ I would never f***ing forget that. Go f*** yourself.”
He then shared a story from a 2011 Oscars party, when he was competing for the Best Actor Oscar alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Denzel Washington, for his role in Silver Linings Playbook.
“This like hero female actress – that I didn’t know at all – comes up to me and goes, ‘I saw your movie and you deserve the nom,’” Cooper remembered.
“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.’”
“Meaning like, ‘Don’t win,’” he clarified.
Cooper is currently starring in the forthcoming biopic Maestro as the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. His “unrecognisable transformation” for the role has left fans speechless.
