Bradley Cooper has credited Silver Linings Playbook director David O Russell with helping him believe he could make his own film.
The Hangover star makes his directorial debut with A Star Is Born, in which he stars opposite Lady Gaga, and which he also co-wrote and produced.
Bradley Cooper, @LadyGaga and Dave Chappelle star in #AStarIsBorn. In cinemas October 3. pic.twitter.com/dYnnsJQo0r
— Warner Bros. UK (@WarnerBrosUK) September 12, 2018
He told the Press Association: “People I really care about told me to do something less ambitious and, by the way, I would say that to me, but you can’t help what moves you and there was a story I really wanted to tell.
“Also doing something like this takes so much energy, so for me at least, it has to come from a very personal place to motivate myself that much, so I didn’t really listen to anybody.
“I always wanted to make a movie, I love cinema so much and I’ve been around it for almost 20 years as an actor and a producer, so I always knew at some point I would have to do it, I just knew I had to find the right story to tell.
“I really wanted to tell a love story about two people who actually are madly in love with each other, and how hard that is still to endure, and I wanted to talk about family and childhood and trauma and finding your voice and all the themes the movie deals with, so it was very exciting to explore all of those things cinematically.”
Is that alright? #AStarIsBorn pic.twitter.com/aTsNiTmMXD
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) September 25, 2018
Asked about the directors who were important influences, Cooper singled out the filmmaker who shepherded him to Oscar nominations for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.
He said: “David O Russell is the one. I would never have been able to make this movie if I hadn’t worked with David O Russell and if he hadn’t have been so generous in allowing me to be a part of his process. We always talked through a lot.”
Cooper also reflected on filming at Glastonbury for the movie, in which he plays a successful singer-songwriter battling drug and alcohol addiction, who meets a talented musician, played by Lady Gaga.
He said: “Glastonbury was just four of us, just myself and the cinematographer and the sound mixer and my buddy operated the second camera, and we had four minutes.
“I remember everything about it. My favourite moment is afterwards I got to say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Kris Kristofferson’, because he’s the one who let us come on the stage for four minutes of his set, that was insane.”
A Star Is Born is released in UK cinemas on October 3.