Bradley Cooper Got His 1st Paid Acting Job at 26
Bradley Cooper is an established member of mainstream Hollywood. But like most actors, it took him several years to get established in the industry. The Pennsylvania native was in the back half of his twenties before he regularly made money as a performer. Those early roles created a certain persona that audiences now expect.
Cooper has since surpassed any assumptions about the depth of his talent. Now, the 47-year-old can show up in various parts and make considerable inroads as a director.
Bradley Cooper attended multiple schools to find his comfort zone as an actor
Growing up in Philadelphia, Cooper attended Villanova for a year before transferring to Georgetown, where he graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Arts degree. While there, he acted in the school’s Nomadic Theatre group.
When speaking about his time on campus during an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Cooper explained that one of the main things he learned was how little he knew about his desired profession:
“I did this play in Georgetown where I cried in one scene, and I thought it was incredible, I’m outside with my buddy smoking a cigarette afterward [saying] ‘I killed it, I was crying, it was incredible.’
The next day, we’re getting notes for that night, and we get to the scene. And I thought the director was just gonna be so effusive with her compliments. And she said, ‘Bradley, you have to remember to say the dialogue, and you want to make the audience feel comfortable. You don’t want to make them want to leave the auditorium.'”
Cooper still felt he needed more education, so he attended the Actors Studio in New York, where he eventually earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2000 and had some life-altering interactions with Robert De Niro.
Up to this point, he put in a lot of effort to be an actor for little tangible reward. His first paid gig didn’t occur until the 2001 cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, where a 26-year-old Cooper plays Ben, a drama instructor at Camp Firewood.
Bradley Cooper transitioned from lowbrow comedy to more serious work over time
Cooper drew some early praise as a supporting actor in Alias and Wedding Crashers. But his mainstream breakthrough came in the blockbuster comedy The Hangover. The Todd Phillips trilogy doesn’t have the best reputation nowadays. However, the success of those movies gave Cooper opportunities to be a leading man.
He starred in Limitless, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Sniper, the latter two movies earned him two of his nine Oscar nominations. His last starring role was in Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, another well-reviewed project, even if it was a box office flop.
Cooper is still willing to appear in smaller roles in notable films. He was part of the ensemble for American Hustle, provides the voice for Rocket Raccoon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and played a far too small part in Licorice Pizza as Jon Peters.
Cooper is now making a name for himself as a director
The actor is increasingly spending as much time behind the camera as he is in front of it.
Cooper directed, wrote, produced, and starred in A Star is Born in 2018. The movie showed that his skill set is more versatile than many people realized. He is taking up all the same roles in the film he is currently filming.
Cooper is the star of Maestro, a 2023 Netflix biography about the life of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein. Cooper plays Bernstein. Carey Mulligan plays his wife, Felicia Montealegre, and Jeremy Strong plays critic and photographer John Jonas Gruen.
