The crushing rejection that made Bradley Cooper a better actor: “I learned from that”
Anyone working in the film industry knows that you need a thick skin to handle the constant stream of rejection and intense feeling of failure that comes with nearly every waking day as you realise that your dreams feel impossible to reach. For actors specifically, this process feels far more personal when you have to lay your feelings on the line in the audition room and make yourself vulnerable for a group of stony casting directors, only to be told that you weren’t the right fit or your hair isn’t the right colour. And for Bradley Cooper, there was one rejection in particular that he found particularly hard to stomach.
While Cooper turned his hand to directing in 2018 with A Star is Born, he was previously known for his performances in Silver Linings Playbook, The Place Beyond the Pines and American Hustle, frequently collaborating with the controversial director David O’Russell.
However, the actor has made an effort to move away from roles in front of the camera and pursue his work behind it, with his 2023 film Maestro marking a significant turning point in his career in his eight-year-long passion project about the life of Leonard Bernstein.
However, despite this shift in his filmmaking journey, Cooper was predominantly an actor at the beginning of his career, beginning with a guest role in Sex and the City in 1999. From this point, he had several roles in the buddy comedies of the 2000s, such as Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, which later became a hit commercial franchise.
Despite his many performances over the years, the actor listed one rejection that was particularly cutting, saying, “I’ve been an actor for so many years, still an actor. And one thing I learned from this man (gestures at Mann) was, I put myself on tape for Public Enemies years ago, and I didn’t get it. And he wrote me a letter. I got a letter from Michael Mann saying, ‘Thank you for auditioning, and I see something in you’. I kept that on my bookshelf for so many years. And you never know the impact you have. I learned from that. Anybody that auditions, I always write them. And that’s because of you”.
Public Enemies was released in 2009 and later saw Johnny Depp in the lead role. The film follows a bank robber called John Dillinger who evades capture from an FBI agent called Edgar Hoover, played by Billy Crudup. The missed opportunity to work with Michael Mann is no doubt one that would haunt any actor, but receiving a personalised letter would no doubt ease the keen sting of rejection.
It should be more common practice for actors and aspiring creatives to be treated with slightly more care when putting themselves on the line for a project, whether it be the chance to director to star in a movie. The current hiring practices in Hollywood are cold and clinical, with little care shown towards the mental well-being of the people who dedicate themselves to the arts. But perhaps the casting directors out there can learn a thing or two from Mann’s sensitive approach to rejection and make the process of moving on a little easier.
