Bradley Cooper On Sobriety Journey & How Experience Made ‘A Star Is Born’ Role “Easier”

Armando Tinoco
·2 min read
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Bradley Cooper has been open about being sober and is opening up once again on his nearly 20-year sobriety journey. The actor even said that having coped with addiction made it “easier” for him on the set of A Star Is Born.

“I was lucky,” Cooper said in a recent episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge about becoming sober. “I got sober at 29 years old, and I’ve been sober for 19 years. I’ve been very lucky.”

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Cooper, who starred opposite Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born, playing a musician and his struggle with addiction, said having experienced something similar helped him play the role.

“It made it easier to be able to really enter in there,” Cooper added. “And thank goodness I was at a place in my life where I was at ease with all of that, so I could really let myself go. I’ve been very lucky with the roles I’ve had to play. It’s been a real blessing. I hope I get to keep doing it.”

Cooper directed the 2018 film which went on to earn several Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor. The film would go on to win one Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Shallow.”

This was not the first time that Cooper talks about his sobriety journey. During an appearance in the SmartLess podcast last year, Cooper credited podcast co-host Will Arnett with helping him realize he had issues to take care of.

“That was the first time I ever realized I had a problem with drugs and alcohol,” he said after a conversation with Arnett back in 2004. “It was Will saying that to me, I’ll never forget it… It changed my entire life.”

Cooper also said he was depressed and felt “lost,” adding, “And I was addicted to cocaine, that was the other thing… I severed my Achilles tendon right after I got fired-slash-quit Alias.”

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