Bradley Cooper Wins Best Director from PETA for A Star Is Born After Oscars Snub
Bradley Cooper may not have picked up a Best Director nomination at the Oscars this year, but one organization certainly thinks he deserves to be recognized.
PETA awarded Cooper the “Oscat” on Tuesday “for his enlightened decision to cast his own canine companion in A Star Is Born rather than using one supplied by a notorious animal exhibitor.”
RELATED: Bradley Cooper on Casting His Own Dog in A Star Is Born: Now ‘He Doesn’t Return My Calls
Cooper cast Charlie as his dog in the self-directed musical drama also starring Lady Gaga because they already had the bond he wanted portrayed on the big screen.
“There was no nepotism — I wanted this relationship with the dog,” Cooper told PEOPLE at the film’s Los Angeles premiere in October. “[Jackson and Ally] don’t have a child together but they have a dog together, and I wanted it to be part of their story. I love dogs.”
Cooper, 43, previously had two rescue dogs, German shorthaired pointer Samson and Chow Retriever mix Charlotte, whom he once called“his kids.” Charlie holds a special place in his heart though, as he’s named for Cooper’s late father.
“That meant a lot for him to be in the film,” Cooper added.
The actor, who also co-wrote A Star Is Born, opened up about being left out of the Oscar’s director category on Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square podcast taping, saying the moment was hard to move past for one specific reason.
RELATED: Bradley Cooper on Casting His Own Dog in A Star Is Born: Now ‘He Doesn’t Return My Calls’
“I was not surprised, I’m never surprised about not getting nominated,” he told host Oprah Winfrey. “I was with my friend in New York City at coffee shop and I look down at my phone, and Nicole [Caruso, his publicist] had texted me and they said congratulations on these other things, but they didn’t tell me the bad news. And I went, ‘Oh wow.’ And the first thing I felt was embarrassment.”
He added, “I felt embarrassed that I didn’t do my part. Like, ‘Oh gosh, I didn’t do my job.’ But the truth is, even if I got the nomination, that should not give me any sense of whether I did my job or not. That’s the trick. The trick is to make something you believe in and you work hard.”
Cooper did, however, pick up nominations in the Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture categories, with the movie nabbing 8 total nods.
The 91st Academy Awards air live on Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. on ABC.
