Bradley Cooper Reveals The ‘Insecurity’ Of Taking Over A Role From Hollywood Alpha Leonardo DiCaprio

Bradley Cooper On Insecurities Of Taking Over A Role From Leo DiCaprio

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  • Bradley Cooper recently sat down for a chat with Mahershala Ali as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series.
  • Cooper discussed what it was like taking over for Leonardo DiCaprio in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.
  • Cooper said that the experience was an “interesting example of how insecure I am.”

For the last decade or so, Bradley Cooper, an eight-time Academy Award nominee, has been amongst the elite of the elite when it comes to Hollywood’s top-of-the-line, A-list actors.

And yet, even still, despite Cooper’s nearly unrivaled acting status that’s up there with the likes of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, etc, etc. — guys who can sell movies with their name alone — he still felt insecure about taking over a role after the king of Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio, decided to drop out of it.

It just goes to show that when it comes to Hollywood’s food chain, there’s Leo and then there’s everybody else. Now that we’ve seen him share scenes with Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, let’s get the three of them together in a movie. Now there’s a billion-dollar idea.

“‘Nightmare Alley’ was an interesting example of how insecure I am,” Cooper told Mahershala Ali in an interview for Variety’s Actor on Actors series.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I still am the guy that wants to be in the group,’ because I had no intention of acting in anything other than what I’ve been writing. Leonardo DiCaprio fell out, and Guillermo del Toro came to me. I still remember thinking, ‘Oh wow, the guys that don’t hire me, they want to hire me?’ And then it was like, ‘Of course, I have to do it just because I’ve never been allowed into that group.’ It was insecurity and ego. Thankfully, it wound up being an incredible experience.”

During the conversation with two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali, Cooper also revealed that his Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro — his directorial follow-up to the Best Picture-nominated A Star Is Born — will finally begin in May following “four and a half years” of development. Cooper also said that legendary director Steven Spielberg decided to pass the project onto him after seeing 2018’s A Star Is BornMaestro, a Netflix film, will also star Oscar winner Carey Mulligan as Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre.

RELATED: ‘Don’t Look Up’ Has Ruined A Nearly Decade-Long Streak Of Critical Hits For Leonardo DiCaprio

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Eric Italiano BroBIble avatar
Eric Italiano is a NYC-based writer who spearheads BroBible's Pop Culture and Entertainment content. He covers topics such as Movies, TV, and Video Games, while interviewing actors, directors, and writers.