Bradley Cooper won’t ever forget the words of a famous “a–hole” director who dismissed his Oscar nominations at an industry event back in 2018.
And the “Silver Linings Playbook” actor, 47, recently explained on the “SmartLess” podcast that he still doesn’t feel like he’s respected in Hollywood, IndieWire reported.
He told hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes that a certain director ridiculed him for having several Academy Award nominations around the time he was doing press for his directorial debut, “A Star Is Born.”
Four years ago, at a party thrown by talent agency CAA, Cooper was mingling with an actress and a filmmaker when the latter said: “What world are we living in where you have seven nominations and she’s only got three?”
The “American Sniper” actor has nine Oscar nods under his belt.
Cooper recalled thinking to himself at the time, “I’m like, ‘Bro, why are you such an a–hole?’ I would never f–king forget that. Go f–k yourself.”
The father of one also looked back at another incident that made him not feel good about his choice of profession.
He earned his first Oscar nomination in 2013 for Best Actor for the dramedy “Silver Linings Playbook” and found himself competing against icons Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington.
He noted to the podcast hosts that a “hero female actress,” whom he didn’t recognize, came up to him one time and turned her nose up at him for receiving the nom.
“She’s like, ‘I saw your movie. You deserve the nom,’” he said. “I was like, ‘What? I’m sorry, what?’ ‘The nom.’ Then, like 10 or 20 minutes later — I’m not kidding — I passed her going to the bathroom and she mouths it, ‘The nom.’ I remember [thinking], ‘What the f–k is this town?’ Can you imagine saying that to somebody? You’ve got to be f–ked up to do that.”
Cooper then admitted that he felt “worthless” and “insecure” as an actor early on in his film career.
His follow-up directorial project, “Maestro,” is next for Cooper and will chronicle the life of legendary “West Side Story” conductor Leonard Bernstein.
“There’s the movie; a movie about marriage, a movie about family. That’s it,” he added about his new drama. “Why is it nuclear? Because it’s this f–king music. Music is nuclear. I had a secret weapon in ‘A Star Is Born.’ It was Lady Gaga. The secret weapon I have in this movie is f–king Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Mahler. The music!”
