Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Bradley Cooper

Episode Date: February 10, 2019

Bradley Cooper is one of the biggest actors in Hollywood right now thanks to the success of his Oscar-nominated film "A Star is Born," which he both directed and stars in. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” the seven-time Oscar nominee talks to Willie Geist about the making of that film, what is was like to work alongside Lady Gaga, and when he first fell in love with movies and directing. He also opens up about his supportive mom and how his late father would react to his success in Hollywood. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. And my guest this week, I think you could make a pretty good case, is the biggest star in Hollywood right now. Bradley Cooper. Bradley and I got together at a little restaurant in the village here in New York City to talk about his directorial debut for the film everybody's been talking about for months now. A star is born. As I said, he directs it.

He co-stars in it. And he's joined, of course, by Lady Gaga. They're nominated for eight Oscars together, best picket. Best actor, best actress among them. And it's been a long time coming. Bradley, years ago, took over this project, wasn't quite sure where he was going to go with the star in a Starsborn. He was thinking, do I get an actress who can sing?

And then as you'll hear, he was at a cancer benefit one night. And he saw Lady Gaga get up on the stage and sing La Vian Rose. And almost a chill went up his spine. And he said, oh, my God, I've found my alley, who is the character in a Star is born. He also talks about his long road to Hollywood success, the movies that jump started his career, favorites like The Hangover, Limitless Silver Linings Playbook. Plus, what it's like to work now with so many of the people he idolized as a young kid growing up, Robert De Niro, for example. Bradley and I have known each other for a long time, and he always talks about when you're a basketball player and you got the poster of Michael Jordan up on your wall as a kid, what do you do when all of a sudden you find yourself playing with Michael Jordan? and he's passing you the ball and letting you take the shot at the end of the game.

That's how he feels about Robert De Niro and a bunch of these other actors that he now works with all the time. He's also a Philadelphia guy who grew up in a tight-knit family, his mother, who is his biggest fan, as you'll hear, and his father who died in 2011 after a long fight with cancer, you'll hear just how emotional that was and just how close he was to his dad. It's a great, candid, at times you'll hear emotional interview with Bradley Cooper, and it's right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks for doing this, Bradley. Oh, no. It's a pleasure. Long overdue.

It is long overdue. Congratulations with your show three years. Thank you very much. Coming up on it. Congratulations to you on Stars Born, man. I was with you a couple nights ago at the National Board of Review Awards when you won Best Director. What's it been like, given the amount of time and energy, and effort and mind share you've given to this project

to have it received the way it's been received. It's overwhelming. Yeah, I mean, the fact that you never know, you have this idea of something that's pretty outrageous in the sense of the fourth remake of a star is born a sort of iconic property of films that have been successful of this idea. But I think I was just getting to an age

where I was 40 years old. And, you know, part of it also has to do with the fact that, you know, there was a bunch of directors that I've always dreamt of working with, and they just weren't asking me to do movies with them. So it's like up 40 and I keep waiting. And, you know, and I thought, no, I'm just going to, that was part of what sort of prompted me. I wouldn't say prompted me, encouraged me out of frustration almost. You say, I've got to do it myself. And there's this thing, there's this property that I really thought was a great sandbox to investigate things that I've been thinking about. Like I wanted to tell a love story.

I wanted to investigate childhood trauma, what it is to find your identity, all these different things. So it was like a culmination of like being at that age, not being able to work with the people I wanted to work with, and also always wanting to tell a story and finally having the courage to do it. What was it about this story that you were so interested in and you thought this is worth me taking a few years, literally, out of my career and putting it all into that? I think it was that. I think it was, it's hard to say. like it wasn't like there was like, oh, like there's a log line of what it is. It's like moments.

You know, I was at the Metallica concert behind Lars Olrick at the drum kit. And I saw this composition. I thought, oh, it would be amazing if that's how you experience a concert as a viewer and watching a film. Like, it's so intimate and at the same time, the epic scope. And then, and then Clint Eastwood was going to direct it. And he talked to me about this movie and I read it, you know, another version that's not a version. And I thought, and I remembered the Christopherson, Barbara Streisand, which I hadn't really seen, but, you know, the reverberations of that film for us growing up, I mean, you couldn't escape it. Right.

No word you want to. But so you always had these images in your mind. And then I always kind of thought maybe I could play a musician, just based on the fact of all of these sort of rock stars that I'd sort of idolized as a kid and sort of spent time. And, you know, you're walking around daydreaming, you know, and my father playing me so much music, loving music. So just a bunch of different things. And then I just thought, I've always wanted to direct. I've always been so curious about how films are made. You know, I realized that early on when I was doing a television show called Alias,

and I would always spend all of my time watching how they would direct and edit and stay in the editing rooms. And then as I've been able to grow as an actor, directors have been so giving with their time and energy with me with movies, like David O'Russell. There's no way I would have been able to direct this movie without David O'Russell, who really invited me into his process for Silver Lanning's Playbook and American Hustle and even Joy. I know there are people around you, though,

who said, love that you want to be a director, go for it, but man, don't start with something this ambitious where you're starring, you're directing. Yeah, it was one of them. That's crazy. But you've got to learn an instrument, play the piano, and you've got to help of really a first-time starring actress along as well.

Did you ever listen to those voices and say maybe this isn't the place to start as a director? I certainly listened to them. I took it in. But in a way, maybe that even allowed me to persevere more because it demanded that I dig deep and figure out what it is. How real does this story feel to me? How much of a motivating factor is it for me to have to tell the story?

And it kind of made me double down on it. And making a movie, any movie, you have to go on faith. I think no matter who you are, how many great movies you've made, you're always starting at zero, you know, again. You know, so it's all on a deep sense of a want to tell the story and an instinct about a person when you meet them or an idea. Like I knew Dave Chappelle had to play the character of Noodle, so it's just about, you know, trying to get them to do it. And, yeah, I mean, I think it's just the love of wanting to finally tell stories before I get too old that really motivated. And knowing having something to say, it's kind of like what I wrote with Jackson says to her in the bar.

You know, if you have something to say in a way to say it to make people. People listen to it. You've got to do it. You've got a great cast. You've got a great story, but there's no guarantee that it's going to turn out the way you have it in your head. Because you've got to, the wild card, I would suggest, is that you've got to learn how to be a musician. You think you can do it, but then you've got to learn how to do it. And I actually remember, not to disclose too much, but when you were in the editing room, we were texting back and forth, and you were like, this could have gone either way.

Like, my singing could have ruined the movie? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But I don't think it did, and you were right. But I also made the bandwidth with which I would sing as small as I could so that I could do well with it. But I worked hard, you know. Roger Love, this incredible voice coach, I had no idea how hard it was to sing. That was the other thing.

I think there was a little bit of an idea. If I knew just how hard, how much work I would have had to done, I don't know. But, you know, learning how to breathe in front of an audience. Because the first thing that goes when you get nervous is your breath. Right. But then if you have to sing, you have to be completely open. And fluid, because this is literally the instrument. So I spent just tons of hours working with him and Lucas Nelson.

And I set up, my basement was like a little studio, and we had microphones and amps and the piano and guitars. But it was also fun. I mean, that's the other thing, Willie. It's like it was so much fun. You know, so that was also motivating factor. I wasn't sort of looking at my watch all the time. Right.

Staying like, oh, do we have another hour to like work with Lucas Nelson? Right. I mean, it was incredible, you know. Fear would come in, but I think that just motivated me to work as hard as I could. And then there's the question of who you're... Because we did. We sang live. Right? And you've always said you had to do that live.

And I think Gaga said the same thing. No lip sing. Yeah, yeah, there's no... I mean, the songs are... Scenes occur during songs, so it would be so odd. It would be like, you know, if we were dubbing this conversation. Right. So you then had to go find your star.

And the now famous story is that you saw Lady Gaga singing at the benefit at Sean Parker's house. You go over to her house the next day. You have the leftover pasta. You play the piano. You sing together. Was she on your radar before that event? In other words, as you thought about this movie? She started to be like a week before.

Her agent, I had talked to her agent. And then I found out coincidentally that I was talking about a foundation for my father at that event and that she was going to be the last act. So I knew she was coming up. But I had no idea. I guess I had, we had met at Saturday Night Live years ago. She had, she had, I was at the one Academy Award show where she said, sang. But it wasn't really until that moment when she sang LeVienne Rose that it just sort of,

it was just one of those moments where you, that was that, is that idea that strikes. And then you just know, oh, that's it. So hopefully I'll meet her. She'll agree to me with me. And then let's see what that's like. But right now when I'm watching her on stage sing that song, and so I'm watching the effect of the room. That's it. Yeah. It was just like. But there's a big leap from your reaction to her who's never started a major motion picture before taking on that project. And so that's the second step, which was then meeting her at her house and talking to her. And right away, I just

thought that's it. If I could just get her to be as open and as free and warm as she is right now infused into Alley, I think we'll be okay. And if I can pull that off, first of all, her singing's like a nuclear weapon. And then now learning about her energy and who she

is just when she walks in a room, well, I just felt like I hit a goldmine. So what's the pitch to her when you go by her house the next day? Because she's probably not thinking, I'm ready to put my music career on hold and go do this movie. Yeah, I mean, I just told her exactly, you know, I just tried to speak completely from the heart of why I wanted to tell the story, why I thought she was right for it, what I wanted to investigate in the movie.

And then also letting her know that the only way she's going to be able to do this successfully or I'll be able to make her do it successfully is if she trusts me 100%. And that's the blind faith. And there was a bit of a barter, which I talked about, which is, you know, and then I have to trust her that she's not going to allow me to be Jackson Main on stage with her. Right. If she doesn't believe that I'm Jackson Maine.

Right. Right. Well, that's now we're... Which was a great litmus test. Because the first time we ever sang live was at Coachella. In between... She headlined that year. So we had the run of the fairgrounds for a week.

So we sent, like, glasted out this email out to all of her fans. And so we got like, I think, like three or four hundred people came. And then we controlled it, but it was live, meaning there were people there. Right. And I remember the first time we were singing this song, Dig on My Grave, and she was looking at me like I was Jackson Main. And that helped.

I've already believed I was, but then Lady Gaga's Ali believing me. And then we started singing, and I could, you know, it didn't sound horrible. And I thought, okay, this is working. Right. But that gave me the confidence to then jump on stagecoach by myself and then, you know, Glastaberry by myself. But I don't think if I hadn't been with her initially, there's no way I think I wouldn't have been able to do that. So then what's it like now is we come full circle at the event we were both at the other night,

where she gets up on stage to accept an award for best actress, and she looks at you and she says, Bradley, you are a musician. And she meant it. It came from the heart. In other words, you weren't faking being a musician. You are a musician. Yeah, my reaction, though, was like, no, I'm not. But.

Nice of you to say, but, no. Yeah, and I think it's because it was so tied into Jackson, Maine. I know that sounds like, you know, little, I don't know, whatever the word is, but I really believe that. Like, that was him, you know. I love music. I guess I'm very musical. That I learned, you know, and I love writing songs.

I didn't realize that. Although I did used to write songs when I was a kid. But a musician is a vocation to me, it feels like. And I would have to dedicate a lot more time to become a musician. But I loved it. And I'm glad that I had a proclivity for it. Is that the word? Georgetown word there.

That's good. Oh, we're Vanderbilt. That's disgusting. We'll just cut that out. No, leave it in. So is it weird to you now that? I know you say it's through Jackson, Maine, but it is your voice and it's your playing to look at the iTunes list and see.

The number one song in America is by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Yeah, that was, you know. Yeah, it's great. And this whole thing is wonderful. Yeah. It's such a, what you said from the beginning, like, what does it feel for something that you fell so deep inside to be received?

Well, I mean, it's, you know, it's just overwhelming, you know. It's like thinking, oh, oh, okay, maybe your instinct isn't wrong, you know. This business is so hard and so often things don't work. So when things work, it's like, you just have to make sure to take it in. That's the thing I keep telling myself. It's just like, I'll make sure to just take it in. So what a shame if I didn't. Then you got Steven Spielberg standing up on a stage.

going on and on about what a great director you are, how this is just the beginning of your great career as a director. I was actually in the wings with him when he went up and he was talking about you. And he said, I knew immediately with Bradley. He said, I've seen the screen tests and I knew. One of the people that encouraged me to go for it. Did he?

Yeah. What did you tell you? I just said, I would decide it. He said, you know, you have to see it through. And that was before I shot the screen test. That was when I was starting to write it initially. So you went over his house and showed it to him. I showed it to him because they didn't see the idea of her and I together.

And I think they were probably also a bit nervous about the whole idea in general, me directing this movie. So I shot a screen test, but it was even more than a screen test for her. I wound up taking that advantage and, like, shooting a real scene and, like, at her house and editing it for a couple weeks. I wrote, like, a 10-page scene of him waking her up. And Jackson Main didn't even exist at all. Like, my voice wasn't low.

I tried, like, earrings, like, Bono earrings. Oh, did you? Yeah, did not work on her. It's not at all. And, like, you know, when you ask people, they're trying to be polite, and I'm like, I just think it works? They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, no, no, no.

Right. So there's no Jackson, Maine, but it was all, but there was a chemistry. There was something that you felt, especially towards the end of the scene. And I went to his house, and I just thought, you know, he's the greatest. And I thought, he'll tell him, and he'll tell you the truth. And so that was a real, that was incredible to be able to show him that at his house. Before I showed it to Warner Brothers. One of the things I love about you, and you touched on a minute ago,

is that you're still kind of in awe of all this that's happened in your life over the last 10 years or 15 years. And when Spielberg gave you the award, you turned and he said, thank you, thank you, Stephen. And then you said, I can't believe I get to call you Stephen. Yeah, it's crazy. And we've talked about that before, you know, you work with Robert De Niro. It's like if you play basketball on the poster of Michael Jordan's on your wall, and then you're playing with them.

Yeah, that's it. And you still have that. How could you not? I mean, I love it so much. How could I never, that would never end, you know, that comes with the love of doing this. Yeah, the other thing I love that Steven said was a survivor. I couldn't believe he said that.

Yeah. I was like, God, I was so happy. He said this. What did you take that to mean? Well, just because I've been doing this for 20 years, you know, and it's, and I know that people, it's almost like people talk about agents. Oh, he's so Asian. He's an actor.

I find this. I'm so, feel so lucky to be in this profession. I hold it with such high regard. I think it's an incredible thing to watch people give all of themselves to tell a story. That's kind of what I was talking about there when I was listening to the room.

Because if you do it with love, it's for you. It's not a selfish thing. But with the fear, it's all about me. How are people going to feel about me? And I feel like when I'm in a collaborative arena with artists telling a story, it all feels like it has nothing to do with us

that we're actually serving something else. And to me, that's it. That's the ideal way to live. Right? Yeah. That's the whole, that's what we're trying to do, is heal each other and remind each other that we're all together in this, because I don't want to be alone and walk down the road of life alone.

Because then it's just me in my head. That's Bueno. You know, I want it. So to be able to be in a profession that I can make a living at and raise a family and dedicate all my time to telling stories. I mean, I hold that in like the highest regard possible. So to be able to be with people that I've admired, have done that for me as a kid.

Yeah. That's endlessly, you know, overwhelming in a great way. You can add Clint Eastwood to that list. I know it was one of your dad's favorites. Oh, yeah. Oh, of course. This guy. Yeah.

So you've been nominated for three Academy Awards in years past. How much would it mean to you to win one either for director, actor, picture this time around, given how much you've poured into this project? Yeah, it would be, well, just to be nominated would be great. Let's take one step at a time. Sorry, I jumped ahead. Let's see if we can nominate it. I think you're going to be okay in that regard.

Who knows, man? You never know. But the truth, you know, I know people talk about it all the time. It's an odd thing to award something that's artistic. It's just, it's not like a sporting event where you cross the line and that person finished two seconds before the other person. That's it. This is all a subjective medium.

So it's a tough thing to get your head around being a part of something like that because it's so. antithetical to the whole art form to me. The thing I do love about it is to be in a room with people to be reminded that you're a part of a community. It was like, that's why I love doing theater in New York is, you know, the play ends, and you all go to the same three places,

and you see somebody who's doing it right down the street or somebody who just got off. And that's incredible. And you're like, oh, it's not just this play that's going on right now. You know, at 805, you know, Broadway lights up, and all these stories are being told. Being a part of the community is amazing. When you make a movie, you're not reminded of that as much.

Right. Because everybody's parsed out throughout the country and the world. So to be in a room and see Denzel Washington there supporting his son. Yeah. You know, I just realized, I didn't know that was his son. I just saw the movie. He's incredible. Yeah, he's great.

Oh, my God. Because I was sitting there, and I saw him in the beginning, and I'm like, and then he didn't go up and present. And then later, he said, no, that was his son, Black Klansman. I had no idea. He was just there to support him. He's incredible. And then Christian Bale is sitting right here, you know,

and then Dick Van Dyke, who always reminded me. me and my father, like, so much like my dad. And just seeing him, and then Carol Burnett getting that award, you know, I love, I mean, to be in that room was an awesome. Jeff Bridges right there. Oh, how great was he. It was amazing. So those, that aspect of it is kind of infectious.

It's kind of wonderful. And you still pinch yourself. I know you look around. You can't believe you deserve it to be in that room. You know, now I just sort of like just bathe in the, I'm just seeing everybody. You know, just like, yeah. And the fact that some of these people I know now. Right.

And they're warm people, you know, because that's the other thing. Denzel Washington's such a wonderful, he and his wife, they're so wonderful. That's incredible, you know, somebody who's your hero growing up, and then you see them, and they're like, hey, and they're normal. And everybody's like a human being. Right. That's the other thing. That's always true. Yeah.

People forget that. But then it's got to be a weird thing that you're in the club. Like one day, all of a sudden you're like, oh, I get to come in the door and hang out with these people. Yeah, yeah, that's correct. I mean, I remember the first time I went to the Golden Globes was with Alias and Jennifer Gar, and I was like, all the way in the back and just sort of seeing Cameron Diaz and you and McGregor like walking out. You know, you're like, this all just felt

like some, and also the place felt like the Thunderdome. And now it's like, it's like a small little. Right, right, right. It's really interesting. It's like going back to your high school and you're like, oh, I imagined all the, I remember when I went back to my 25th year reunion and I looking at all the kids and they looked like kids. But when I was in high school, like the seniors

looked like, you look. They were men. And I kept asking the teachers, have kids gotten younger looking? Because literally in my brain, you know, It's like, Zach Burwell looked old. Yeah. Well, think about your parents. When my parents were my age, they were old, 43.

I know. Oh, my God. They were fully formed, grown. Now I feel not in that position. So this year will be the 10th anniversary of The Hangover. Oh. 2009. Right.

We shot in 2008. Right. But when it was released. Yeah. And I think most people mark that as the beginning of this run for you. I mean, you had a bunch of movies and you had an alias. But you were the guys. guy from wedding crashers, right?

No question about it. So what did the hangover do for you? The hangover, first of all, financially, it was like the idea of making that money like that blew me away. Right. And then it allowed a studio like relativity at the time to take a chance and hire me to play a role in Limitless, the leading role in Limitless. So I think that really it was limitless.

I think that I think, I think, encouraged. people like David O'Russell to say, you know, maybe we'll take a chance or like, what's to say, Tom Rothman at Fox to say, okay, maybe he could do the A team. I think without that, there's no way that people would have taken a chance. So you go from that silver linings, then that's the big, sort of the big budget. Okay, I know your name, I know your face. And then, limitless was the limitless. And then all these other ones, I don't think they would have ever taken a chance. Right. If limitless had, if limelist didn't work, then that's it, even with the hangover. Yeah.

Because the hangover was just, it was really about the triumphant. Right. You know. Right. And then Limitless was an opportunity to just see if there's, can this guy tell the story? Yes. You know, as an actor.

Right. And you had to sell that a little bit to one of your heroes. To Robert De Niro. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was the other thing, they weren't going to make the movie unless there was another name. And, or A name, because I wasn't even really a name.

And, and Robert De Niro, I kept thinking, oh, Robert De Niro would be great for this Carl Van Loon character. But it was such a small role. So then I read the book, and I thought, What if we combined two roles from the book and make his character larger? So I went to his hotel room and pitched it to him. Yeah, that was crazy. So you walk into De Niro's hotel room, this guy.

Again, the poster on the wall. Yeah. And you're like, hey. I didn't have his poster on my wall. You know, figuratively. That'd be a little weird, I guess. No, I mean, taxi driver. Yeah, I didn't.

Raging bull, maybe. Yeah. Penance. Right. The Phillies. Oh, yeah. Eagles. One of your heroes, though, and you have the job of convincing him to take a role.

It was weird. It was amazing. But again, you know, you meet these people. Well, Robert Deere, I had met before, even though I don't think he remembered it. I had a addition to play, I put myself on tape to play a role in Everybody's Fine, which was a movie he did. And my mom and I did the tape at my house in Venice, California, and we sent it in. And he asked his agent if he could meet me, and I went and I went and met him. And that was the first time I had sort of talked to him one-on-one.

And he just met with me to tell me that I wasn't going to get the job, but that he, He wanted me to know they don't stop because I see something in you. Wow. So the fact that he did that, number one, is he really reveals who he is as a person to take that time because it didn't serve him at all. And then so I felt a little bit of comfort because that had happened to go and talk to him at the hotel, even though I don't know if he remembered that. But I went to the hotel.

But he was so present and interested. And then he called his agent right away and said, I want to do the movie. Yeah. Well, he loved you. I know that, having talked to him about it. You mentioned your mom. What does your mom think about the success of Star is born and what's happening right now? You know, my mom's funny because she always thinks everything is going to be a huge hit.

What's her mom's due? And I'm always like, Mom, no, this one's not going to work. She's like, no, I'm badly. No, I'm telling you, you know, you're a cook and you've always been a chef. It's going to be, I'm like, Mom, it's not going to work. No, Emma Stone's amazing. Hawaii, Bill Murray's not. Mom is not going to work.

And so she started me like, oh, maybe I'm wrong. So now she does it with cautious, with caution, which I kind of dig, man. She's like, I don't know. It's tough out there. She's flipped on you. But she's still, but yeah, she's definitely like, like it did it with total 180. So did she see early cuts of this? Like, did she look at the movie and go, I don't know, Bradley?

She loved it. She loved right away. She did, yeah, yeah. How couldn't you, I guess, right? I mean, it felt like we had something special. so early. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think about, and I know you do, what your dad would think about where you are in your career right now? Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. What do you think he's thinking? I don't know, man. Yeah, you know, it's part of the life. Yeah. It's your guy. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Sorry, man. No, no. Listen, I know. Well, I guess as you think of, look down the road a little bit, you can keep doing this thing?

I hope so. Keep directing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. As long as I find, I did, I mean, you have to love something so much that you're willing to put the work in. Yeah. And as long as that keeps happening.

Famous Eagles fan, famous Phillies fan, Bradley Cooper. That's hilarious. by the way. What? I mean, just a famous fan. Well, there's a lot of cutaways of you. That's Super Bowl, man. Like, every 10 minutes, you're in the box,

slow-mo, yelling down, Philly Special. You're the face of the Eagles fan base. Now, how did Philly shape you, make you who you are? Philadelphia, the town? Oh, I mean, everything. Geez. I mean, it's your roots, so wherever I would have grown up would have shaped me. Growing up and, I think, you know,

my parents coming from where they did, my mother being Italian, my father being Irish, their respective parents being firemen and policemen, and my mother having two brothers, my father having a sister, you know, all that. You know, my sister and I growing up in Janketown, both of my parents having moved from the inner city sort of into the sort of semi-suburbs, I mean, I guess people really wouldn't even call them suburbs today. There were train tracks behind her house and then a movie theater. But it felt like I lived in like a palace, you know, until I went to GA.

Right. You know, there's a lot of discovery, you know, a lot of socioeconomic discovery as a kid growing up in Philly. You know, also just culturally. I was just very lucky. I was very exposed to a lot of different cultures in Philadelphia, which you wouldn't have thought. My parents are very smart about taking me everywhere. And I think just by the nature of where they came from, I was exposed to a lot of different socioeconomic cultural realities early on.

I think that has served me invaluable throughout my life. Also, there's a individuality about Philadelphia. There's such a strong personality that the city has that you meet anybody that comes from Philadelphia, you kind of know in two seconds. It's really incredible. It's really, other than Boston, I have. I haven't really found that. Maybe San Francisco, in its own completely different way, has that too. And as I've left, you know, as I left there to go to college, you know, as the years go on, I miss it more and more, which I never would have thought growing up.

Yeah. That I would want to go back there. And I want to go back there all the time. And I even thought about maybe moving back there. Really? Yeah. You do that? I would maybe do that.

Yeah. Yeah. I really love it. And it's also where you learn to love movies, too, right? It's where I learned everything. Yeah. You know what I mean? But, yeah, I mean, Comcast came through Philadelphia in the 80s, I think.

And that was, if Comcast hadn't come through Philadelphia, I don't know if I would be an actor. Because, you know, all of a sudden, the elephant man and Apocalypse Now and, you know, all the dresser and all these movies are playing on a loop on Prism and HBO. Yeah. You know, it was a little toggled thing above your television. I remember that. And so I would just watch movies all the time. And then also having movie theater right behind my hands. house. But the idea of movies all the time, amazing, incredible,

author-driven movies, just sort of me watching them all the time as a kid was huge. So thank you, Comcast. Thank you Comcast. And thank you Comcast and thank you Comcast for everything you've done for me. The fact that Elephant Man was one of your earliest movies, what a great full circle moment to do that on Broadway. Oh, I mean, yeah. I mean, that's, again, that's the side thing. If like if you love something so much and you feel it's so deep and you put the work in you, who knows?

knows where it'll take you. And that's what happened with the Star is born. And I think that's hopefully what will happen in the next project I do. There's a deep, deep-seated inspiration that I hold on to, and that's the fuel to, you know, which I'm sure you do with your work. You know, there's something you've always wanted to do or investigate or be a part of. So otherwise, I don't know how to put that kind of work in. Do you?

No. No, you have to. No, you have to. No, you have to believe in it. Yeah. Congratulations, man. Thank you. Proud of you.

You too. Well done. Thanks. My thanks again to Bradley Cooper for sitting down and spending some time with us on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. He wasn't doing any press. The movie came out in October. It was good enough to take the time and hang out with us. He is truly one of the all-time great guys.

My thanks to all of you for tuning in this week to hear more of our conversations with all my guests. Be sure to click subscribe and listen for free every week. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.