The actors Bradley Cooper is desperate to work with: “There’s so many”
In terms of actors that have made the transition to directing, few have been as successful in recent years as Bradley Cooper. The Hangover star took his first foray into filmmaking with 2018’s A Star is Born, the fourth version of the oft-remade musical drama. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a Best Picture nomination, as well as one for Best Actor. Then came 2023’s Maestro, a biopic of Leonard Bernstein. Cooper, who also portrayed the great composer, was once again up for Best Picture, making it two-for-two in terms of the Academy’s greatest prize.
In his thus-far brief directorial career, Cooper has already worked with some of the great names of cinema. Maestro was co-produced by Steven Spielberg, and in terms of acting talent, he has bossed around the likes of Lady Gaga, Carey Mulligan, Maya Hawke, and Sam Elliott. And that’s not including the myriad of great performers he’s acted alongside
In 2011, long before he ever sat in the director’s chair, Cooper was asked by HeyUGuys about the actors he had designs on working alongside. “Daniel Day Lewis for sure!” he enthused. “Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet. There’s so many, Tom Hardy, I’d love to work with Tom Hardy, I think he’s incredible! I think Michael Fassbender’s incredible and Carey Mulligan is great, there’s a lot of young actors that are really good and who I’d love to work with.”
That last name is interesting because, as already mentioned, Cooper directed and starred alongside Mulligan in Maestro. The British actor played Felicia Montealegre, Bernstein’s wife who had to live with the fact that he was a closeted homosexual. Mulligan is absolutely spectacular in the role, balancing compassion and anger beautifully and drawing maximum sympathy when it is revealed that her character is dying of cancer. She was just 26 years old when Cooper gave that interview and had recently been nominated for an Oscar for her role in An Education. Her future director was very wise to single her out as one to watch.
As for the other names on his list, Cooper has ticked a few of them off… sort of. He shared the screen with Cate Blanchett in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley in 2021. He was also one of the producers on Joker, which of course starred Joaquin Phoenix as Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime. Whilst he never worked with the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, he did appear in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, which included scenes with Hoffman’s son who, funnily enough, is also called Cooper.
As for his other favourites, the voice of Rocket Racoon has yet to add them to his contacts list. His next project is set to be Is This Thing On?, in which he will also star alongside its writer, Will Arnett, and Emily Blunt. Few details have emerged about the project, so there is every chance he could add another of those names to the call sheet.
With his directorial journey only just beginning and two successful movies already under his belt, the sky truly is the limit for Cooper as it stands. Actors of all sorts will surely be lining up to work with him, and chances are that his list of co-workers will be littered with stars by the time his career does come to an end.
