The Oscar-nominated role Bradley Cooper wanted to give away to Chris Pratt: “I felt I wasn’t right”
Bradley Cooper is one of those actors on whom you’d bet your house had won an Oscar.
If not for his many acting accolades, then for either of the two movies he’s directed. While A Star is Born and Maestro have both been represented well at the Academy Awards, they’ve only won one award – ‘Best Original Song’ for ‘Shallow’. At the time of writing, Cooper is still waiting to receive his flowers, but you get the idea that it will only be a matter of time.
One of the many, many ‘Best Actor’ nominations Cooper has received over the years was for his role in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. The handsome star plays Chris Kyle, a real Navy SEAL sniper, whose memoirs were used as the basis for this story of war and its effects on his personal life. His performance – which was informed by the method acting techniques of a former co-star – did well during awards season. The film itself was nominated for ‘Best Picture’, which earned Cooper another nomination as a producer.
As it turns out, Cooper very nearly missed out on playing Kyle. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he revealed that he had initially intended to only produce the project. He had another person in mind for the lead role; someone he knew very well from their days in Guardians of the Galaxy.
“At that time [before Kyle died] I felt I wasn’t right for the role,” he revealed. “Look at me, I’m from Philadelphia, I weigh 185 pounds. He was a huge [guy] from Texas. I thought maybe Chris Pratt. But in order to get WB [Warner Bros] to buy, I had to agree to star… There’s nothing worse than seeing an actor pretend he’s from Texas, doing an accent. You’re like, oh, shut the… up. The hope is, two minutes into the movie, you forget it’s me.”
Cooper pointing out that Kyle was from Texas is an interesting factor. He’s from Pennsylvania, which is about as far from the Lone Star State as one can possibly get. I say “almost” because Pratt was born in Minnesota. His family then moved to Alaska, which means you’d have to drive through all of Canada and then most of the United States to reach the state his character would have been from. Pratt’s build might have suited Kyle more, but his origins were just as unsuitable for the part.
Cooper’s birthplace was just one of the many alleged inaccuracies in American Sniper. Several characters were invented solely for the purpose of the film, while several others were given larger roles, such as an Iraqi sniper with whom Kyle does battle. The death of Kyle’s real-life friend Ryan ‘Biggles’ Job was massively manipulated for dramatic effect. Job is shown to have died shortly after being wounded in battle, but in reality, he passed away years after it happened. Then there’s the scene with the fake baby, which is a whole story in and of itself.
Pratt was not the bankable superstar he is today when Cooper suggested him for this role. It’s interesting that he was able to identify his potential this early on, but maybe it’s for the best that he wasn’t a part of this controversial film.
