The Razzie-nominated Ben Affleck role Bradley Cooper auditioned for: “I didn’t even have anybody to read with”
Even though it feels like Ben Affleck hails from an entirely different generation from Bradley Cooper, they’re less than two and a half years apart in age.
By the time Cooper had even made his big screen debut in Wet Hot American Summer, Affleck was already an Academy Award-winning screenwriter who’d gone on to star in a ‘Best Picture’-winning movie and work with names like Bruce Willis, Peter O’Toole, John Frankenheimer, and Sandra Bullock.
Even when Cooper landed his breakthrough role in JJ Abrams-created spy series Alias, he ended up hating it so much that he requested to be killed off. It wouldn’t be unfair to say he took the longer route to the top, but one thing they definitely have in common these days is their filmmaking credentials.
His wait for that elusive Oscar continues despite his transparent attempts to manufacture it into existence, but the fact that Cooper has notched a dozen nominations in 11 years split across five different categories speaks to his versatility and current status as an acting, filmmaking, and producing powerhouse.
Of course, Affleck has only ever been nominated for two Oscars and won them both, so he’s definitely got Cooper’s number in that regard. The latter does have a 100% track record at one awards ceremony, but it’s not one he’ll care to remember after his partnership with Bullock in the wretched rom-com All About Steve saw him share the spoils for ‘Worst Screen Couple’ at the Razzies.
Affleck, meanwhile, has four Razzies from a dozen nods, but if things had gone differently, Cooper could have beaten him to his very first nomination after he revealed to NPR that he’d unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of AJ Frost in Michael Bay’s Armageddon, which ultimately saw the leading man and love interest Liv Tyler end up in the running for the ‘Worst Screen Couple’ award Cooper himself would claim a decade earlier.
“I would put myself on tape. I had, like, a camcorder, and I didn’t even have anybody to read with, so I would actually read the other character’s lines, leave space in the tape recorder, and then say my line,” he explained. “I did that, honestly, maybe 200 or 250 times over the course of the two years while I was in school. And then I would just hand-deliver the tape to whatever casting address there was.”
Cooper doesn’t seem too disaffected by missing out on “the Ben Affleck role,” and he may have even dodged a bullet. The ex-Batman has singled out Armageddon as the barometer of a career he’s no longer interested in having, even if the paycheque would have been welcome at the time. If it came down to a coin toss between a freshly minted Oscar winner and a complete unknown who hadn’t even finished their acting studies, then there would only ever be one winner.
