Bradley Cooper opens up to Vanity Fair about his battles with addiction, remaining sober for the past decade, on right and wrong, and how love and loss has helped him grow as an actor.
The handsome actor absolutely dazzles on the January 2015 cover, on newsstands December 9th.
Having struggled with addiction during his twenties, and going through the heartbreaking loss of his father, the 39-year-old expressed how his personal struggles have helped him in other ways to prepare for certain roles.
Bradley is currently starring as Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle in Clint Eastwood‘s film American Sniper (January 16, 2015). He told the magazine, “Losing someone close to me. Going through love and loss . . . knowing what’s important. Realizing that the bottom line is that all I got is me, so it’s about time to stop trying to be something that I think you would want me to be. Or that would give me what I think I need.”
He added, “As you get older, thank God, your body deteriorates, but your soul sort of flourishes.”
Bradley’s been sober since he was 29 years old, and keeping his body clean and healthy has also aided him in the strenuous physical preparation needed for American Sniper.
He said, “I did it naturally because I’ve been sober for 10 years and didn’t want to do anything. I had a realistic conversation. Can I do this in three months naturally? Can I gain 30 pounds of f*cking muscle? I didn’t know if I would be able to do it or not. Thank God—luckily—my f*cking body reacted fast.”
He also discussed how he’s matured since his twenties, and as he gets older, saying:
“I see life much more gray as I get older. I was so sort of black-and-white in my late 20s. There’s right and there’s wrong and that’s it. That’s a tough way to live…. It’s rare that I judge somebody, really rare. I think people feel that, so it’s sort of easy to get close to somebody if you don’t feel judged by them.”
So, will the brilliant actor one day turn into a director? Co-star Sienna Miller told Vanity Fair with an honest laugh, “He’d be brilliant, but he’d be a nightmare [as a director]. He won’t let anyone get away with anything.”
Read more at Vanity Fair and check out the whole interview when the January issue hits newsstands on December 9th!
