Bradley Cooper Once Shared Robert De Niro Is the Reason He Became an Actor
Bradley Cooper once credited Robert De Niro as one of his motivations for becoming an actor. And when Cooper was an aspiring actor, personal interactions he had with De Niro helped further encourage Cooper’s ambition.
Bradley Cooper named the Robert De Niro movies that inspired him
Many reasons played a part in Cooper wanting to pursue acting. But seeing Oscar-winner Robert De Niro on screen only grew his passion for the art. Several of De Niro’s movies caught a young Cooper’s attention.
“Raging Bull was the first thing I saw him in, but I was so disconnected from it all I could get was the emotional experience that Scorsese was creating, not really [what] De Niro was doing,” Cooper once told Black Film.
However, Cooper began to really pay attention to De Niro’s performances in his other work.
“But The Mission when he’s carrying the rocks up to the mission there was something about that moment when he lands and he’s crying and they’re touching his face. Awakenings when he dances with Penelope Ann Miller in the hospital and then she leaves and he’s holding the. And then of course Deer Hunter, Jacknife, and so, so many movies,” he explained.
Robert De Niro is the reason Bradley Cooper wanted to be an actor
De Niro’s influence on Cooper didn’t just come from being on screen, however. The Taxi Driver star motivated Cooper on a personal level as well. According to Cooper, he and De Niro have had a couple of interactions that each helped push Cooper towards success.
“My past with him, without him knowing it, goes back a long way, just because he’s the reason I became an actor pretty much,” he said.
Their past went all the way back to when Cooper was an audience member on Inside the Actor’s Studio. When De Niro stopped by the platform as a guest, Cooper jumped at the chance to ask him a question. Cooper inquired about a technique De Niro displayed for his performance in The Mission. When De Niro responded to Cooper, The Hangover star was over the moon.
“It was like a beam of light shot into my chest. I was so excited. And I never sat down too and I looked around like did everybody hear that? He said that, right? So that was the first experience with Robert De Niro,” he said.
Robert De Niro gave Bradley Cooper words of encouragement after Cooper wasn’t hired for a movie
De Niro had another interaction with a younger Cooper that stayed with the A Star Is Born actor. Cooper once screened for the 2009 De Niro movie Everybody’s Fine. In the film, Cooper would’ve played De Niro’s son. Although Cooper didn’t get the role, De Niro took the time to offer the actor personal words of encouragement.
“So I met him at his hotel, my mom and I drove there, and I was there for like five minutes and we sat down and he was like ‘You’re not going to get it. But you have it, I see you, I see you. Okay,'” Cooper recalled of his meeting with De Niro.
It seems that De Niro was right since shortly after that meeting Cooper would become an A-List star. The two would even end up working together in films like Limitless and Silver Linings Playbook. Over the years, the pair developed a bond from their time on set. Something that Cooper had trouble processing.
“[It feels] completely surreal. I see him as a man now, that myth is utterly broken, he is my friend – which is, in itself, a very surreal occurrence,” he once told Style.
