How Bradley Cooper saved Brad Pitt’s career
A genuinely heartwarming story of friendship comes in the form of Hollywood A-listers Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt. Both booming to stardom in the 1990s and 2000s, the two friends have known each other for a long time as they existed around the same circles, but have grown closer as their careers matured.
First starting out as acquaintances with a mutual admiration, as sources say, “Brad has a lot of respect for Bradley and vice versa”, and events of recent years have made the two actors lean on one another more heavily. As Pitt went through a tumultuous split in his private life, it seems struggle and strife fostered a tight friendship that may well have saved his career.
Pitt’s battle with substance abuse became mainstream knowledge a few years back following the news of his high-profile separation from his wife, Angelina Jolie. In 2017, in a bid to turn his life around, Pitt joined Alcoholics Anonymous to get clean and sober, telling The New York Times that he realised he had “taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges”.
Joining an AA group made up solely of men, the experience proved transformative for the actor as he suddenly experienced true friendship and emotional support from male peers. “You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” he said, describing the group as a “safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself”.
Through the group and support from friends, Pitt got sober and back to work, going on to star in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Winning ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the National Board of Review Annual Awards for the role, Pitt opened up about his sobriety in his acceptance speech by thanking one friend in particular, Bradley Cooper.
In fact, Cooper even presented Pitt with the award to make the moment even sweeter. “I got sober because of this guy, and every day’s been happier ever since,” Pitt revealed in his speech as he thanked Cooper, “I love you, and I thank you”.
Providing the kind of friendship, support and solidarity Pitt clearly needed on his sobriety journey, Cooper could relate in more ways than one. Back in 2012, Cooper opened up about his own sobriety, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t “drink or do drugs at all anymore”, going on to state that “being sober helps a great deal”.
Similarly to Pitt’s rock bottom realisation that he needed to get clean in order to get through his split and get back to work, Cooper’s sobriety was prompted by a harrowing experience. “I was at a party and deliberately bashed my head on the concrete floor…like, ‘Hey, look how tough I am!’ And I came up, and blood dripped down,” he recalled. After spending a night in hospital, the actor knew he needed to make a change.
Both actors have openly discussed how alcohol felt like a much-needed “escape” in all the pressure and chaos of Hollywood, with Cooper saying he “felt like an outsider” and struggled to live up to the expectations of his career. But the drive to succeed may well have been the thing that saved him. He said: “I realised I wasn’t going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m actually gonna ruin my life; I’m really gonna ruin it.'”
Connecting over their sobriety and fostering a rich friendship ever since, Cooper’s support for Pitt’s continuing career as he helped keep the actor on track in his AA journey. Talking about the duo, sources say that “they are both fathers and navigating family situations and being single. They go to dinner and have each other over for visits when they can. They’ve had deep conversations and have really connected and supported each other through difficult times.”
