Bradley Cooper reacted angrily to the filmmaker who insulted him for his Oscar nominations. Bradley Cooper is someone that, no matter what genre he’s working in, you can count on a terrific performance. If you’re a comedy enthusiast, you may have first seen him in Wet Hot American Summer or The Hangover, but he’s proven himself with his work time and time again. That isn’t to say that Hollywood is ready to appreciate Cooper’s abilities. Cooper said on the “SmartLess” podcast (via IndieWire) that a prominent filmmaker insulted his Oscar nominations, and that after being nominated for Silver Linings Playbook, a famous actress stared at him and declared that he deserved the “nom.”
While Cooper did not name the director, he told a story about being at an award season party when he had seven nominations (that number has since changed) and how the director mocked him because of his number of nominations, while standing next to a friend, a fellow famous actress who had three nominations herself. “What kind of world do we live in if you get seven nominations and she only has three?”
Cooper didn’t take that jab gently. He told the podcast hosts, “I’m like, ‘Bro, why are you such an asshole?'” “I’m never fucking forgetting it.” “Go fuck yourself,” says the narrator. It’s not Cooper’s fault that he got nominated, and while the director may have been pointing up Cooper’s successes to demonstrate that his friend deserved additional nominations as well, it was a fairly absurd way to do so.
Cooper has received several nominations for his efforts as a producer, director, and writer for films such as A Star Is Born, ranging from Best Supporting Actor to Best Actor to Best Picture. Following his Best Actor nomination for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013, Cooper received Best Supporting Actor nominations for American Hustle the following year, as well as Best Picture and Best Actor nominations for American Sniper. Cooper was then nominated for three Academy Awards for his performance in A Star Is Born, including Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for Best Picture in 2020 for his work as a producer on Joker. Then, in 2022, he was nominated for another Best Picture Oscar for his performance.
To the director’s remark about the lady who has received less nominations than Cooper, it is not Cooper’s issue. That’s the Academy’s problem, and the rest of these films, with the exception of my personal thoughts about American Sniper and Joker, are well worth Cooper’s nominations, so it goes down to Hollywood’s attitude toward something they don’t comprehend, as Cooper pointed out on the show. “She’s like, ‘I watched your movie,” he said of the “hero actress” who insulted him for his Silver Linings Playbook nomination. You are deserving of the award. ‘What?‘ I exclaimed. ‘Excuse me, but what?’ ‘The nom,’ says the narrator. Then, maybe 10 or 20 minutes later — I’m not joking — I passed her on her way to the restroom, and she says, ‘The nom.’ ‘What the fuck is this town?’ I recall wondering. Can you imagine saying something like that to someone? To achieve it, you’ve got to be insane.”
The lesson here is that people aren’t always nice, and Cooper remembers individuals who chastised him for receiving attention for his job.